Finally a performance to give English fans a glimpse of a brighter future. The results are still not falling their way but a fifth defeat on the spin told only a fraction of the story of this compelling match. If the world champions ultimately walked away victorious, this was also the day that Steve Borthwick’s side answered some uncomfortable questions about their ability and tactical direction.
If all Test matches were this thunderous and hypnotically watchable there would be no need to rustle up half-baked fantasy schemes to try and flog rugby to the unconverted. The quicksilver Marcus Smith was again the attacking ringmaster for England but in the end the matchwinner was the even more diminutive Cheslin Kolbe, whose two superbly taken tries proved to be the difference.
When they are staring into the abyss this England side have a habit of responding strongly. Until the closing moments here was another rousing example, with Sam Underhill playing like a man possessed in the back row and Freddie Steward underlining exactly why he was recalled for this fixture. With the elusive Smith, once again, pulling the strings brilliantly this was undoubtedly the home side’s best performance of the autumn.
They were still undone, though, at the vital moment by a couple of crucial missed tackles. First Damien de Allende surged through Ben Earl to get in behind the English midfield defence and the outstanding Kolbe then skinned Ollie Sleightholme down the right to score the try that finally gave the Boks some daylight. Despite the 68th minute sin-binning of Gerhard Steenekamp, that was effectively that.
Could England have done more in the final quarter, when their bench again struggled to make a decisive difference, this time against 14 men? Three second-half points would suggest that continues to be an issue. Another four tries conceded will also sting. There was no sense of shame, even so, in this latest red rose reverse against the world’s current number one ranked side.
England were certainly bang up for it from the moment the pre-match fireworks, lights and lasers had concluded. Barely three minutes had elapsed when Smith, seemingly setting up for a drop-goal, scampered left instead and linked expertly with Henry Slade to put the predatory Sleightholme over.
It was exactly the kind of bold decision that galvanises a team, particularly one trying to end a losing drought. The only downside was that it instantly awoke South Africa who were swiftly back level. Grant Williams is not your average pedestrian scrum-half and, after a lethal burst of gas had taken him past Ellis Genge and George Martin, a beautiful left-foot step also left the final defender, Steward, for dead.
Within five minutes another heavy blow materialised. First Jack van Poortvliet and then Smith were charged down inside the home 22 and, with the ball obligingly staying in play, Pieter-Steph du Toit applied the finishing touch. With and without the ball these Boks can loom horribly large.
A storming contest was only just getting going. With advantage being played for an English offside close to their line, Manie Libbok took advantage of the free ball to float a cross kick over to Kolbe’s wing. The 31-year-old has the ability to sidestep would-be defenders in a phone box and duly did so again.
England, though, were determined to keep playing and were rewarded within four minutes when Underhill, back in the starting XV in place of the injured Tom Curry and clearly a man on a mission, drove unstoppably over from close range. Smith’s conversion reduced the gap to just two points with half an hour of a breathless game not yet compete.
South Africa had also already lost the influential Ox Nche, complicating their usual second-half “Bomb Squad” bench strategy. England were also quietly encouraged to see Libbok push a long-range penalty narrowly wide a minute prior to the interval and would have settled for a 17-19 deficit before kick off.
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The question was whether they could stay in the game long enough to put decisive pressure on a Bok team who grow ever more steely in the closing stages of games. The visitors did not have a 7-1 monster munch of a bench this time but, perversely, that made them even trickier all-court opponents, with the experience of Handré Pollard and Lukhanyo Am on tap if required.
And when required they can play ball with the best of them. Had Aphelele Fassi’s final pass not drifted forward they would have had another brilliant try through a flying Kurt-Lee Arendse within three minutes of the restart and a game which might have floated away from England was back hanging in the balance.
A key turnover close to his own line from Earl also helped to keep England in it and, after Tommy Freeman had claimed a mighty high ball at the other end it seemed his side had scored again with a long Smith pass creating enough space for Slade to go over. The celebrations, though, were again swiftly curtailed, this time courtesy of a head high rolling tackle by Maro Itoje on Malcolm Marx.
Smith was at least able to slot a penalty to put his side ahead 20-19 with just under half an hour remaining. No one in the stadium, even so, was about to write off the Boks, even when Will Stuart and the recently-arrived Luke Cowan-Dickie combined to earn the kind of scrum penalty that South Africa rarely concede.
Sure enough, Pollard kicked a trademark long penalty, bouncing it over off the crossbar for added effect, to restore his side’s advantage before the razor-sharp Kolbe delivered his second killer thrust. It felt like a decisive intervention and so it proved.