Rugby union: England see off the Springboks
“What a difference one point makes,” said Chris Foy in the Daily Mail. At Twickenham last Saturday, England beat South Africa by “the finest of margins”: having fallen behind in the first half, they came back to win 12-11. It was a “momentous triumph of tenacity and spirit and defiance in the face of all logic”. And it served as a “pressurerelease valve” for head coach Eddie Jones and his side, who had lost all but one of their previous six Tests. They were flawed – not to mention lucky – but any team who can “withstand the punishment that England did in the opening 40 minutes and still escape to victory deserve heady praise”.
This was a team of “outcasts and offcuts”, said Nik Simon in The Mail on Sunday. An injury crisis has robbed England of mainstays – Courtney Lawes, Anthony Watson and the Vunipola brothers, to name a few. In their stead were relatively unheralded club players such as Mark Wilson, Ben Moon and Harry Williams. Yet that “motley crew” still managed to beat the Springboks – a team who defeated the All Blacks just two months ago. It was all a far cry from England’s disappointing performances earlier this year, said Owen Slot in The Times. True, some of the familiar failings were on display, namely indiscipline: the team conceded 11 penalties, more than twice as many as the Springboks. Yet their problems in the breakdown, which so hobbled them in recent matches, appear to have been “mended”: they conceded 12 turnovers, to South Africa’s 19. The defence was the “one part of England’s game that worked for them” from start to finish, said Andy Bull in The Observer. And it was Owen Farrell, the fly-half and co-captain, who ran the match. He was the player who scored the match-winning penalty; who won a key turnover in the final minutes; and then “killed the match” with a controversial tackle on André Esterhuizen at the very end. “When the heavy pressure comes down, Farrell is the sort of bloke who takes the load for you.”
The Springboks only have themselves to blame for this loss, said Robert Kitson in the same paper. Their dominance in the first half was astonishing: they enjoyed 78% territory and 67% possession. Yet their wastefulness was “almost comical”. Had they taken even half of their chances in those opening 40 minutes, “they would have been way out of sight long before England’s improbable revival”. It was Malcolm Marx, of all people, who let them down. He’s one of the world’s great hookers, but this time his line-out throwing was all over the place. For South Africa, the defeat will go down as a “huge missed opportunity”.