Beaten up again
Jones laments ‘horror show’ as bright start gives way to another error-strewn, ill-disciplined performance – and a worrying fifth Test loss in a row
South Africa 23 England 12 Att: 40,028
A season that began with high hopes of creating history can now not finish soon enough for England.
This fifth successive Test defeat, equalling the losing streak of Stuart Lancaster’s England side in 2014, saw any lingering hopes of salvaging the Test series against South Africa extinguished in the thin air of Bloemfontein.
But more alarmingly, having gone into the season with the ambition of becoming the first side to win three successive Six Nations titles, England instead find themselves in a state of freefall, with questions mounting about how can they arrest it.
The series defeat, on the back of their fifth-place finish in the Six Nations, has stripped Eddie Jones’s side of the status of genuine contenders for next year’s World Cup that they had worked so hard to establish after winning the first 17 Tests under the Australian.
Certainly on the evidence of the first two Tests, England, against a completely new-look and inexperienced Springbok side, appear to be nowhere near where they should be just a year out from the tournament in Japan.
A third defeat in Cape Town next Saturday, with autumn Tests against the Springboks and New Zealand to come at Twickenham, would see Jones’s position come under fierce scrutiny.
It would also leave the Rugby Football Union, currently in the middle of a cost-cutting exercise that will lead to 75 redundancies, with the difficult decision of either backing Jones a year out from the World Cup with the hope that there is still time to turn the side’s fortunes around, or make a change in the same year that they extended his contract to 2021.
In contrast, the Springboks look a side reborn under new head coach Rassie Erasmus. The appointment of the first black player, Siya Kolisi, to captain the Springboks in their 127-year history in the first-Test victory at Ellis Park was described by one senior South Africa figure as the most momentous day since they came out of isolation in 1992.
Yesterday, Eramus’s side backed up that statement with another firecracker of a display, full of ferocious intent, power and great passion to mark Tendai Mtawarira’s 100th Springbok cap.
By the end England looked a distant second in the contest, despite once again – as they had done at Ellis Park – delivering a highly-promising start that yielded tries for Mike Brown and Jonny May after just 13 minutes. Remarkably they would not score again.
Instead the narrative followed a depressingly similar twist for England’s supporters as it had in Johannesburg. From a position of strength, England’s game management, numerous handling errors and, most strikingly, their discipline let the Springboks back into the game all too easily and with it any hopes of keeping the series alive.
England’s profligacy ignited such a ferocious response by the Springboks that by half-time, just as they had done at Ellis Park, they had taken the lead and control of the game with a try by Duane Vermeulen, the totemic No 8, and two penalties by Handre Pollard, the second a monster effort from 58 metres.
By then Billy Vunipola, who had been at the centre of England’s hightempo start, had been forced out of the action with a leg injury and there would be no way back.
Apart from a dropped ball over the line by Brad Shields on his first start for England, they did not come close to scoring again in the second half and it was only their rearguard defence that prevented South Africa from adding more to their total than a penalty try and a third penalty kick by Pollard.
The Springboks on home soil are a different beast and you have to be in the stadium to get a true sense of the intensity they bring to their game when the home support find their voice. It is as
compelling as it is fearsome and England ultimately found the challenge overwhelming.
In Faf de Klerk, the Sale Sharks scrum-half, the Springboks had their perfect conductor, backing up his livewire display at Ellis Park with a breathtakingly fast game. His tempo at the base of the breakdown was critical in giving his big forwards the front-foot possession to hammer England’s defensive line, while Damian de Allende also gave South Africa a productive midfield target.
Vermeulen, flanker Pieter-Steph du Toit and hooker Bongi Mbonambi gave the Springboks the edge up front with their hard carrying, and appropriately it was a 30-metre dash by Mtawarira that created the momentum for Vermeulen’s try.
England’s indiscipline and the inability to cope with the intensity and power of the Springboks revival saw the contest at times boil over into brawls during a fractious first half and Maro Itoje and Mako Vunipola both came close to a yellow card.
Their lack of structure was a marked contrast to the ease with which they had been able to carve open the Springbok defence in the first quarter, showing no ill effects of being woken up by a fire alarm going off at their Bloemfontein hotel at 6am yesterday morning.
First Billy Vunipola forced the Springbok defence onto the back foot with a strong carry and, after swift passing by Ben Youngs and Owen Farrell, May came off his wing to create the overlap on the left and he drew Willie le Roux to put Brown over for his second try in as many matches.
South Africa’s indifferent start continued when a penalty for obstruction allowed Farrell to set up an attacking line-out and from it England were able to strike from first phase. George Ford looped around Farrell and a clever flick by Brown to Elliot Daly this time put May away to finish strongly in the right-hand corner. Yet having surrendered the lead and momentum by half-time, there would be no way back. The yellow card for Nathan Hughes, on for Billy Vunipola, was indicative of England’s disciplinary problems that have plagued them all season. A powerhouse scrum by the Springboks culminated in a penalty try and such was their superiority in the closing stages they should really have scored more than Pollard’s final penalty.
Scores 0-5 Brown try; 0-7 Farrell con; 0-12 May try; 5-12 Vermeulen try; 7-12 Pollard con; 10-12 Pollard pen; 13-12 Pollard pen; 20-12 penalty try; 23-12 Pollard pen.