Morale booster Springboks win was much needed

ENGLAND gained a muchneeded morale boosting victory over the South Africans at Twickenham, making it two wins on the bounce against the Boks who have been showing much improvement moving towards the World Cup.

When the Africans do their analysis, they will wonder how they lost the game.

Their much-lauded pack in the first half took the game to England with strong scrum and drive creating a wonderful platform for their excellent backs and in particular centre Damian De Allende who blasted holes in the English midfield at will.

The Boks who enjoyed so much possession were just not clinical enough; they were so wasteful when they had the chance to score, notably at the lineout where crucial lineouts were lost which did not allow them to get their powerful drive in action, close to the English line.

England showed great character to stay in the game on the scoreboard, which always allows any side to pull off an unlikely win.

When the game broke up in the second half England did get into it, the introduction of Exeter prop Ben Moon, inset, did improve the scrum, which helped them at least gain parity. The one English player you could not take your eyes off was their co-captain Owen Farrell who looked pumped up for the game and played with his heart on his sleeve.

This raw emotion is great to see but it must be contained into positive energy. His high shot on Andre Esterhuizen was very rash and unnecessary and could have undermined his side’s efforts to pull off this unlikely victory. I do not think that there could have been to many complaints if the ref awarded a penalty. You could see with Farrell’s reaction at the end of the game, he had got away with one.

As the mighty All Blacks roll into town, they will of course be respectful of the England side especially playing at Twickenham, but if they can be more accurate than their southern hemisphere counterparts, they will have a great chance of victory. England as a minimum requirement against the All Blacks will need to shore up the midfield defence, ensure the platform is functional, driving a positive attack.

with Andy Deacon, former Gloucester prop and Cirencester director of rugby

THIS week I was lucky enough to be invited (thanks Burleigh Travel) to an Aitch and Aitch Bee sporting lunch event at the Daffodil in Cheltenham, with Sam Warburton as their guest speaker.He talked about his recent retirement from the game and it was a fascinating insight into Sam’s career, one which he had put his body on the line.I was lucky to meet the great man afterwards, and he is a true gent.