England struggle to repel the power of Boks driving lineout
ENGLAND head coach Steve Bates refused to be downcast after his side’s warm-up game for the forthcoming World Cup in France ended in a convincing defeat at Sixways.
At times it looked as if the hosts were playing against opponents who were two years older than them, such was the difference in power and, but for a huge penalty count against the South Africans, the margin of defeat would have been greater.
Bates said: “The score line is irrelevant. That’s exactly what we needed as they’ve played three games together while we’ve only had five sessions.
“They were cohesive and pretty physical and we looked rusty but we improved after the interval as we held onto the ball more. We struggled to cope with their driving line-out, which was the dominant feature in the first half but although we defended well, there is a lot to work on.”
Despite Bates’ assertions, it is hard to fancy a turnaround should the sides meet again at the JWC.
Man mountain Sazi Sandi and standout flanker PJ Steenkamp led the charge up front, with centre Rikus Pretorius a real handful throughout. But for a lack of precision in the red zone, more tries would surely have come their way.
Aaron Hinkley and Tom Willis battled manfully against the tide for England and Ben Loader efficiently took his scoring chance.
After Gabriel Oghre’s nightmare throwing in the first half, the set piece improved considerably after the Boks withdrew their first choice front row for the final 25 minutes.
From the kick-off, the visitors quickly demonstrated their talents with a combination of forward power and skilful handling creating an overlap try for David Kriel.
Gianni Lombard converted from the touchline but was then yellow carded for a deliberate obstruction, which allowed England their best period and Loader capitalised by brushing off two tackles to score.
With Lombard’s return, his side were able to dominate the second quarter with a close range try from Rewan Kruger rewarding their efforts. Schalk Erasmus and Henry Walker exchanged tries from driving line-outs in the second half before Pretorius sealed victory with a 50m intercept score.