How Jones’ men found a way in their hour of need

12 England 11 South Africa

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Considering England went into this game with a callow pack and on the back of one victory in six Tests, it could prove the most significant win of Eddie Jones’s tenure. These were the keys to victory.

The yellow card

The 10 minutes that had such a profound impact on the result occurred just when the England pack appeared to be on their knees.

The Springboks had dominated the opening exchanges, using their heavy ball carriers such as Eben Etzebeth and Pieter-steph du Toit to pin England on the back foot, dominating possession and territory.

Their rolling maul and scrum were dominant, too. Maro Itoje had already conceded two penalties when his try-saving tackle on Ivan van Zyl turned into a yellow card as the Saracens lock lay over the ball at the breakdown.

It appeared inevitable that the Springboks would score and, as England’s penalty concession continued, they were on another yellow-card warning.

England knew then it was do-ordie time. “When they’re clearly kicking to the corner for points and your second-row goes off, it’s not ideal,” said lock George Kruis.

“But we’ve practised that situation during the week, it’s not something we’re unfamiliar with. As a pack you’ve got to front up and be the pack you want to be at that point.”

The message from Dylan Hartley and Owen Farrell was: keep them out now and the psychological impact could swing the game towards England.

“Those are the times when you’re in your own half, defending your line, lose a guy for 10 minutes … you have to hang in there and that’s character,” said Ben Te’o. “I think you could tell the will to win.”

That resilience combined with the Springboks’ lack of precision when under close-quarter pressure ensured that, by the time Itoje had returned, England had won the 10 minutes 3-0 thanks to the first of Farrell’s three penalties.

South Africa would eventually transform their pressure into a try, superbly created by S’busiso Nkosi, but a second Farrell penalty ensured the deficit was just two points at the break.

Jones felt by then that the tide had already turned in his side’s favour.

“At 8-6, when you’ve had about 20 per cent possession and 20 per cent territory, we were the team in the most positive mindset,” said Jones.

“We were the team in the best position at half-time. All we had to do was keep playing with intensity and keep at it, and the result was going to come. At half-time we were in the dominant position psychologically.”

The line-out

Here was England’s lifeblood in the face of unrelenting pressure. Three times Malcolm Marx was guilty of over-throwing on attacking lineouts, while England also forced Siya Kolisi to lose possession at a driving maul that was edging towards the goal-line.

These were far from unforced errors, however. Kruis, England’s line-out caller, revealed their intention had been to restrict the Springboks’ options at the front of the line-out.

“You want to give them different pictures, they weren’t getting change at the front, so they’ve got to start changing it up,” he said. “We’ll take that in terms of a couple of over-balls, it’s built-up pressure.”

The breakdown

England’s inability to compete hard for the ball on the floor was their downfall during the Six Nations, but on Saturday their speed to the ball was noticeably quicker.

The Springboks may have enjoyed 59 per cent of possession and 64 per cent of territory, but conceded 19 turnovers to England’s 12.

“We had targets on Malcolm Marx, who is awesome at the breakdown,” revealed Zach Mercer, who replaced Tom Curry when the openside flanker hobbled off at the start of the second half. “It was a massive step up [from the Six Nations]. Credit to [defence coach] John Mitchell and Mark Wilson, who led it.”

The scrum

With 72 minutes on the clock, England, despite clawing their way back into the contest in the second half and creating several gilt-edged try-scoring opportunities, still found themselves trailing 11-9, after Handre Pollard had cancelled out a long-range penalty by Elliot Daly.

Another promising attack had fizzled out when Brad Shields was unable to find Chris Ashton, losing possession forwards as he attempted to offload out of a tackle. Given South Africa’s scrum dominance, it appeared to be a straightforward exit for the Springboks from the five-metre put-in, but replacement hooker Jamie George sensed the opportunity to attack, even with two props beside him, Ben Moon and Harry Williams, with just 11 caps between them.

“Jamie was saying, ‘Let’s go after them here,’” recalled Mercer, like Moon, making his international debut.

“We did that. They put [Duane] Vermeulen to eight so we were expecting them to carry, but we scrummed first and got the penalty from it.

“All we had to do from behind was give them as much weight as possible. We stayed in there and we got the penalty from it.”

Jack Nowell hailed it as a scrum “made in Devon”, given the impact of Exeter props Moon and Williams.

The Farrell effect

England’s shunt at the scrum won the decisive penalty and Farrell,

despite coming up short with a previous long-range effort, felt no emotion.

“I couldn’t tell you what goes through my head,” said Farrell. “All you have to make sure is you’re calm and composed enough so that you don’t try so hard.”

Farrell’s calmness was replaced by a ferocious intent in leading England’s defence as the Springboks pushed hard again in the dying minutes.

If he was fortunate not to have conceded a penalty for a last-gasp bone-crunching tackle which floored Andre Esterhuizen on the charge, it encapsulated his warrior spirit and England’s defiance.