The Sports Corner

English pulverized by Springboks

South Africa put on a clinical display to dispatch a struggling English team at Twickenham, 42-6.

The tourists were never threatened by England who lost their second Test match in as many weeks and by the end of the match appeared desolate in defeat.

The relatively young English team was put to the sword by its more experienced and battle hardened opponents. It is hard to believe that the English actually dominated possession and forced the Springboks to make twice as many tackles in defence, yet it was the Springboks who walked away with five tries to nil.

It was another torrid test for young English flyhalf Danny Cipriani who found time and space at a premium as the notoriously agile South African backrow and centres pushed up the field to limit his options with the ball.

It was on one of those excursions that Ruan Pienaar charged down a Cipriani kick, collected the ball and scored the second try of the game. It was the third time in six matches that Cipriani has had a kick charged down resulting in a try.

The Springboks who held a 20-6 half time lead were all business in the second half, their tough defence continually repelling the English who had nothing to show from ten raids into the South African end. Danie Roussow and Adi Jacobs scored tries with Jaque Fourie and Bryan Habana capping the game off with two tries in the last three minutes to sap whatever life was left in the English.

English manager Martin Johnson urged his team to not lose heart after the big loss, though he noted that the post game environment was very quiet.

“It only gets harder in terms of the team we’re playing against and the week that we’re going to have, but that’s when we’ll find out about characters in the team and in the coaching team,” said Johnson.

“You have to take into account (the psychological impact of the defeat) but the players can handle it. This was a defeat in a game of rugby. This is what we do. We play rugby games and sometimes you get beaten. We have taken a real beating and it is now about getting up off the floor. We have to lift each other up this week.”

“These are our best players. We need to coach these guys up and get them buoyant. That is up to the players as well. We need character.”

The road ahead does not get any easier for England with New Zealand arriving this weekend for the last test in their November tour. The All Blacks will be looking at securing a grand slam of test wins (defeating Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England) with a win over England.