Another Bok loss piles more pressure on England

Down, down, down do England go, gasping for air at altitude and flailing throughout this 23-12 loss to South Africa, a shattered and spent force.

There were new starting faces in Brad Shields and auld acquaintances in Danny Cipriani but the failings were the same: patchy, slipshod, illdisciplined play that allowed the Springboks to gather themselves from another dozy start when they conceded two tries but England had neither the muscle nor the cleverness to take advantage. Instead, Shields revealed himself as no more than another toiler in white while the die was cast long before Cipriani stripped off his tracksuit for his first appearance in three years.

England are stuck in a time warp, approaching the serious World Cup countdown with little identity and a diminishing reputation. It has been a salutary experience for them on the High Veld where they have been well and truly trumped by what is a raw Springbok side, still taking shape.

A chastened England squad gathered themselves in a huddle at the end but the time for defiant words alone is long past.

Eddie Jones had billed this as a “World Cup semifinal dressrehearsal”. In that context, his wellresourced regime is delivering no more than that of Stuart Lancaster. The England head coach is under pressure.

Everyone knew it would take more for Shields to feel at home in an England shirt than passing reference to the “teaspoons on the wall and chip butties on a Sunday afternoon”, at his grandparents’ houses in Essex and Yorkshire that he claimed as evidence of his bona-fide heritage.

The Hurricanes captain needed to flex some muscle, shed some blood for the cause for him to believe that he truly belonged and for his new teammates to trust him instinctively. A passport will give you name, rank and number: a full-bore, sweatflecked, no-holds-barred contribution on the pitch brooked no doubt about a man’s commitment.

Shields’ parents, Nigel and Danielle, had flown from London to see their son belt out the anthem and go on to do his stuff that he previously had only played out against a New Zealand backdrop. They themselves had returned to their England roots: now their boy was following suit. The only way, though, in which Shields was going to quell the disquiet around his Usain Bolt-type fast-tracking into England colours was to make a state-