South Africa held off a fierce England fightback to triumph 31-28 in a thunderous test at Twickenham yesterday to make it five defeats in a row for Stuart Lancaster’s side 10 months before they host the World Cup.
Two tries put South Africa 20-6 ahead a minute into the second half and though England scored two quickfire rolling maul tries to get level, Schalk Burger got the key third Springbok score and the boot of flyhalf Pat Lambie brought them home.
The victory made it 11 wins and a draw for the Boks against England, dating back to 2006, and was a hugely satisfying one following their defeat by Ireland last weekend.
The frustration for England was that, just as a week ago against the All Blacks, they dominated the early stages but this time failed to turn possession into points and found themselves 10-0 down after 15 minutes after Jan Serfontein intercepted a Danny Care pass.
England were generally too lateral in their attacks and only two Owen Farrell penalties kept them in touch at 13-6 down.
That gap became 14 points 38 seconds after the restart when Willie le Roux slipped a lovely offload for Cobus Reinach to complete a wonderful score.
England needed to hit back and did so emphatically in the way they know best. A monster maul that South Africa were powerless to stop, sent prop David Wilson over and minutes later virtually the entire England team combined for another irresistible charge that ended with Ben Morgan making it 20-20.
South Africa showed, however, that they too could score through the forwards when they rolled over the corner for Burger to score and Lambie took his side 10 points clear with a penalty and a drop goal.
Centre Brad Barritt scored England’s third try in the last minute but, just as last week, it came too late and merely made the margin of defeat look more respectable.
In Cardiff, Wales beat a valiant 14-man Fiji 17-13 in a precursor to next year when the two nations meet in the pool stages of the WCup.
Wales scored unconverted tries throughGeorge North and Alex Cuthbert and a converted penalty try following a collapsed maul to take a 17-6 lead into the break.
Fiji, whose response came courtesy of two Nemani Nadolo penalties, provided a number of dangerous moments through their typically expansive attacking rugby but were let down by a lack of composure and poor decision making.
Fiji prop Campese Ma’afu was shown a yellow card in the 36th minute for a series of infringements and within six minutes of returning to the field was shown a second yellow card for a dangerous tug on Bradley Davies.
Other result: Scotland vs New Zealand 16-24.