England ended a poor day for the Northern Hemisphere teams as they lost to South Africa by 22-17, though if South Africa had taken their chances and kicked their goals it could have been a bigger gap. Earlier New Zealand had thumped Ireland and Wales fell short against the Wallabies.
England knew it would be a tough task in South Africa, but they compounded their own problems with a scrum that gave free kicks and penalties and a kicking game that was either non existent or was not chased. For South Africa the kicking from hand caused mayhem as Habana and the rest of the Boks backs chased and harried England behind the gain line.
England had some things to talk about, not least the fact they turned round level 6-6 at half-time. But for 20 minutes of the second half the Springboks blew them away. The late Foden try simply gave the game the look of a close contest and next week England will need a new game plan if they are to have any chance of unpicking the Boks and reversing the score-line of:
South Africa 22-17 England
Scorers
South Africa
Tries: M Steyn, De Villiers
Pens: M Steyn 4
England
Try: Foden
Pens: Farrell 4
Teams
South Africa: Z Kirchner; J P Pietersen, J de Villiers (capt), F Steyn, B Habana; M Steyn, D Hougaard; T Mtawarira, B du Plessis, J du Plessis, E Etzebeth, J Kruger, M Coetzee, W Alberts, P Spies.
Replacements: A Strauss, C Oosthuizen, F van der Merwe, K Daniel, R Pienaar, P Lambie, W Olivier.
England: M Brown; C Ashton, M Tuilagi, B Barritt, B Foden; O Farrell, B Youngs; J Marler, D Hartley, D Cole, M Botha, G Parling, T Johnson, C Robshaw (capt), B Morgan.
Replacements: L Mears, P Doran Jones, T Palmer, P Dowson, L Dickson, T Flood, J Joseph.
Referee: Steve Walsh (ARU)