These Boks all Beasts
South Africa (13) 23 England (12) 12 SOUTH AFRICA: Tries: Duane Vermeulen, a penalty try. Conversion: Handre Pollard. Penalties: Pollard (3). ENGLAND: Tries: Mike Brown, Jonny May. Conversion: Owen Farrell.
● Tendai Mtawarira was active for just 45 minutes in his 100th test before he was withdrawn from battle and it mattered little. The Boks, frankly, had 22 other beasts lined up, willing and able to rip into England.
They clinched the series in this at times brutal test match and will travel to Cape Town with the luxury of spreading game time in their wider group.
In a match of thunderous tackles, tetchiness crept in but boiling point was thankfully avoided.
Again the Boks had to summon courage and resilience after another lethargic start. They marginally bossed the collisions and England, although full of enterprise, were running on empty towards the end.
Mtawarira’s departure seemed a little premature but Bok coach Rassie Erasmus will, for now, employ a revolving-door policy in deploying his personnel.
Again it was the experience the Boks gained from abroad that proved crucial. No 8 Duane Vermeulen ran at and into the English with little regard for life or limb. Despite being in their crosshairs, scrumhalf Faf de Klerk again posed difficult questions for the England defence.
Hooker Bongi Mbonambi, centre Damian de Allende and Pieter-Steph du Toit, too, made an impact when they collided with the tourists, while Handre Pollard has brought consistency at flyhalf.
Props Steven Kitshoff and Thomas du Toit came on for Mtawarira and Frans Malherbe respectively and their impact was immediately felt. A penalty try underlined a period of post-halftime dominance.
England, who were meant to be buoyed by the return of Joe Launchbury and the maiden start team for Brad Shields, again came unstuck. Poor discipline again cost them and Nathan Hughes’s banishment left them short.
There were fireworks before the match and things got a little heated by the end of the first quarter, when both packs came to grips with each marginally outside of what is permissible. There was a lot of grabbing and pulling but nothing that required sanction.
The tension, however, remained palpable and things almost boiled over on the halfhour mark after another bout of enthusiastic shoving, mainly between Vermeulen and Maro Itoje.
Itoje cut a towering figure at the front of the lineout, but the loss of Billy Vunipola cost England.
Although they won the series the Boks have some revision to do.
It took them a while to wise up to the intentions of the England attack last week, and again surprisingly they left their periphery unattended early on.
The Boks’ defensive frailties were exposed when England hit left and created a simple overlap that enabled Mike Brown to score in the 10th minute.
Barely two minutes later his wingman Jonny May made the most of the space he was afforded but he evaded S’busiso Nkosi’s feeble tackle to score in the other corner.
It wasn’t so much the missed tackles that cost the Boks but the vast swathes of unmanned territory they allowed England to venture into.
By half-time, exactly halfway through the three-test series, England had scored six tries by making headway up the flanks.
As was the case in the first test, the Boks eventually plugged those holes and it also helped that they had more of the ball as the half progressed.
The Boks squandered several opportunities to register points as the first quarter closed. Unlike England, though, when they built a head of steam, they did so taking the direct route.
It took a Herculean effort first from Mtawarira to make initial breach and then Vermeulen, who was drawn by the magnetism of the tryline.
Two Pollard penalties, the second two minutes from the break, got the Boks in front by a point. The Boks never looked back.