Rugby union: England finally beat the Springboks

“There was a time,” said Tom Fordyce on BBC Sport online, “when any sort of victory over South Africa would have been a cause of wild celebration for England.” And so “almost the most impressive aspect” of last Saturday’s 37-21 win was not “the scoreline, or the four fine tries”, but the “collective attitude at the end”. Even though the side had just ended a ten-year, 12-match losing streak against the Springboks, they still knew they should have played better. They have now won all ten games since Eddie Jones took over – a record matched by only two other coaches in the history of international rugby.

Jones wants England to be the best team in the world, said Brian Moore in The Daily Telegraph. And judged by those standards, last week’s performance was “uneven”. The side conceded six penalties in the first 20 minutes; their kicking game looked a little dodgy. Against a better side than South Africa, who have been weakened by retirements and injury, such weaknesses could prove fatal. Still, in the past year England have beaten “all the world’s best teams”, said Stuart Barnes in The Times – with the exception of Argentina, whom they will meet later this month, and the All Blacks. Jones has not achieved those results with a “transformation of talent”: seven of the eight players in England’s pack played against South Africa two years ago. He has done it by giving the squad a “whopping great dollop of mental strength”, something they have lacked since they won the World Cup in 2003. The rest of the world is now taking England seriously, said Robert Kitson in The Guardian. The side have risen to No. 2 in the world rankings; three of their players were on the World Rugby Player of the Year shortlist, following 12 years in which they had just two nominations. It will take a very good side indeed to beat them.