England Violated By Boks: South Africa 36-27 England

England Stand Under The Posts Following Another South African Try

England were relentlessly and heavily smashed by the South African forward pack today. Eventually losing 36-27, England saw themselves down by 18 points at one point. The first half in particular was most disappointing with England fans holding their heads in their hands at the atrocious nature of England's performance in which they missed 20 tackles. 

South Africa dominated the early possession with 78% in the first 10 minutes and cracks began appear in the English defence with Bryan Habana finding space on his wing but Ben Morgan was able to cut him down before Bismark du Plessis knocked on. From the scrum the ball came out of the ruck and into the grateful hands of Willem Alberts who walked into England's try line to put South Africa 5-0 ahead with Morne Steyn missing the conversion. England touched the ball twice after the first try before South Africa went over again, once for Toby Flood to kick the restart and second for Ben Foden knocking on a high ball straight into the arms a South African player. From there, the South Africans once again dominated the possession with Bismark du Plessis going over for a second try under the posts, giving an easy for conversion for Morne Steyn and putting South Africa 12-0 ahead after 7 minutes. 

England came back strong with a Ben Foden break before Marcell Coetzee stopped Ben Youngs getting onto the ball giving away a penalty and allowing Toby Flood to score 3 points. Despite the glimmer of hope, Ben Youngs was unable to control a bobbling ball having to put down the ball behind the line leading to a penalty for the South Africans which Morne Steyn duly put over. Only minutes later, South Africa had scored another try, this time Francois Houghaard had gone over following a forward domination of England. 

Out of nothing on the 23rd minute Enland went over with Toby Flood. A Ben Youngs tap penalty on the 10m line was then popped to Chris Ashton who made a break and easily popped around the full back to put Toby Flood in for a try which was converted quickly to bring England somewhat back into the game. 

South Africa went 3 more points ahead by the 30th minute with Morne Steyn scoring a drop goal before missing a penalty. England were looking tired and unorganised at this point having been physically battered by the far superior South African pack. The stroke of half time saw Manu Tuilagi make a break before a shocking offload to Chris Robshaw where the captain couldn't deal with it seeing both him and Toby Flood dropping the ball before South Africa gained possession. That capped the first half which showed pure uncensored South African agression next to a clueless, amateurish England side who had nothing to counter with and that missed one tackle every 32 seconds or 1 tackle in every 4 an unbelievable fact. 

The second showed a more spirited and resurgent England, yet, South Africa started the second half in the same vain, battering England's line, only stopping to see England through a forward pass straight from the lineout allowing South Africa more possession. The attack led to Morne Steyn scoring another penalty following a Chris Robshaw offence which could have easily been a yellow card. 

England were able to show some fight, following a botched lineout move Ben Youngs was able to capitalise on a South African lineout mistake to go over for a try despite a perilously high tackle from Marcell Coetzee. Toby Flood converted making the score 28-17 with half an hour left to play. England showed some fight but the physical battering from South Africa was sustained and ruthless with Morne Steyn scoring another drop goal. 

England once again bravely fought back, a 20 metre drive from a lineout led to Ben Youngs going over for a try, Toby Flood converted putting England in an impossible position 7 points behind with 20 minutes left, one which they did not deserve. The try represented a momentum shift, Thomas Waldrom had previously stormed all over Bismark du Plessis leading to him leaving the field. Morne Steyn then put the restart straight into touch giving England a scrum where they won the lineout with Toby Flood kicking a penalty putting England 4 points behind with 15 minutes to go. 

Thomas Waldrom dropped the restart but England battled well to force a scrum in their own 22. From that point South Africa will have rued taking Jannie du Plessis off and seeing his brother Bismark leave the field as without the Natal brothers, England forced a penalty and were able to go into South Africa's half. Despite this, poor kicking from England led to J.P Pietersen making a break from his own half before a few phases later going over in the corner to put the game out of sight for the Bokke by 11 points. 

Some spirited English attack in the last ten minutes was littered with errors, Jonathan Joseph throwing a forward pass,Lee Dickson knocking on and England losing a lineout on South Africa's 5 metre line. Ben Foden and Chris Ashton combined well to push England into South Africa's 22 but more mistakes led to a lineout, a knock on and then the end of the game. 

Despite England's performance, they were second best in every area. Ben Youngs managed to poach a try with the positives coming from England following the removal of the du Plessis brothers. At points England looked completely clueless with little phase play and game strategy. Moreover, there seemed to be little cohesion between forwards and backs with Ben Youngs' trundles along the pitch resulting in little other than dropped balls. 

Key Battle Reports

Joseph v De Villiers

The match was not won in this area of the field bu De Villiers clearly came out on top. Joseph suffered from a lack of ball and his small stature was exploited by Bismark Du Plessis. In contrast De Villiers was classy in attack and defence the figurative head of a bullying South African team, he was close to being man of the match.

Botha v Etzebeth

The forwards won this game and Etzebeth was one of the class performers. He carried and smashed and tackled like a veteran personifying the try South African nature. Whilst Botha put his body on the line, he missed tackles, lineouts and simply wasn't the same standard as the outstanding Etzebeth.

Foden v Lambie

Nobody really came out on top in this battle. Foden was probably England's best back, but dropped a high ball which led to South Africa's second try. In contrast Lambie was injured just after half time but what he did do was exploit England's backs running direct lines and returning kicks well.

Man of The Match - Bismark du Plessis

Unreal match today. Scored a try and smashed everything in sight, everybody was at the mercy of du Plessis. When he got injured South Africa conceded two tries and lost three scrums. He was the focal point of everything good for South Africa, their next captain and their best player.