England vs South Africa LIVE rugby: Result and reaction as Springboks edge thriller

For England, a familiar tale of mistakes and missteps; for South Africa, another day at the ‘Boks office. These are two sides at opposite poles in terms of confidence and certainty and after a contest of blood, thunder and ill-will, the final scoreline told a predictable story. England were valiant but never likely to be victorious – these champion Springboks are simply too good.

The heavy bell tolled again for the hosts and Steve Borthwick, a fifth defeat on the spin continuing a sorry saga that is beginning to become formulaic. England threatened a shock for 60 minutes but eventually fell away, beaten and beaten up and left to yet again rue their mistakes and missteps.

This might have been the best performance of a wretched November for Steve Borthwick’s side but there could be no repeating the feat of the 2012 conquerors of the All Blacks; the best men’s rugby team on the planet proved themselves exactly that. Some credit can be given to the home side for sticking in the fight, Rassie Erasmus’s side unable to land a knockout blow. But there was too much quality and ferocity in the South African ranks to be denied, from Cheslin Kolbe and his fizzing feet to the collection of colossi in the forward pack.

Rassie Erasmus has confirmed Ox Nche is a major doubt to face Wales, but the knee injury is not as bad as first feared and “just a cut”.

“It’s a cut above the knee,” says Erasmus. “It’s not the knee itself which is positive, but it’s quite a deep cut. It’s something very similar to what he had against New Zealand, when he had the cut just above the knee.

“I’m not a medical doctor or not a doctor at all, but I think it just depends on how quickly the stitches go, but it’s not in the knee, he’s not injured, it’s just above the knee.

“Hopefully we won’t be without him again, but we won’t risk him if that thing is going to open again, but it’s not the knee, it’s a cut.”

France were their unpredictable selves as they beat New Zealand 30-29 in a superb, thrilling autumn series test to end the All Blacks‘ five-match winning streak on Saturday.

Fabien Galthie‘s side held firm in a nerve-wracking finale to prevail with tries by Romain Buros, Paul Boudehent, Louis Bielle-Biarrey and 15 points from the perfect boot of Thomas Ramos.

Following back-to-back victories against Australia in the Rugby Championship, the All Blacks had prevailed against Japan, England and Ireland recently and were looking to avenge their defeat against Les Bleus in last year’s World Cup opener.

Tries by Peter Lakai and Cam Roigard with points kicked by Beauden Barrett and Damian McKenzie, however, saw them fall just short for their third defeat in a row by France.

“It is incredibly frustrating,” the England head coach. “I feel the frustration of the players. While there is much to be positive about, we want to win games, and we are putting ourselves into position to win games and not converting them. These are challenging days for us; it is painful. But we will work through this.

“We have to recognise how good South Africa are. You have to be on the money every second of the Test match. We had plenty of opportunities to score but there were small lapses that were hugely significant.”

“We know what he is capable of, ball in hand or defending,” Kolisi says.

“He's one of the best passers in the team, I love his attitude, he's not afraid to try stuff. If we need ground, he's not afraid to put his hand up.

“Rassie gives us the freedom, the system protects you, but if your 10 is under pressure, he can take charge. It's really good to have that in the group.”

“It doesn’t go to his [Kolbe’s] head, I don’t think there’s a title he hasn’t won, from sevens... wherever he has played, only the Super title,” Erasmus says.

“He’s up to speed immediately, the team helps him a lot, but I can’t praise him enough.

“The off-the-ball work he does. We’re thankful to have such a good group of wingers.”

“It’s tough, when we had a good winning margin, you’d say does the score reflect the game? I say yes, it was a one-try game,” says Erasmus.

“Competitive as hell, we had some disruptions and injuries, including Ox, I thought Vincent and Malcolm did well.

“When you play at Twickenham, it wasn’t fantastic, but we’re content we beat them today.”

“There is Japan next week, our sole focus, next Sunday back here, there are, whilst the overriding feeling is frustration and disappointment,” Borthwick tells TNT Sports.

“Even in these difficult times, they’re gaining experience, it’s invaluable for the future. It’s a team that has transitioned this year.

“A lot of senior leaders that have left us after the World Cup, ultimately we have to get across the line.”

“Turning the ball over, it’s really disappointing, each one slightly different, not too many patterns in that. We’ll have a good look at that and discuss it with the players,” Borthwick tells TNT Sports.

“This is a very top level of world rugby, we’re against an incredibly experienced team, we have to develop the ability to close out games. We didn’t today.

“We have to debrief thoroughly post game, for a long period, we went toe to toe with arguably the best team in the world. The players deserve credit, South Africa deserve credit for the composure.

“We’re going through some painful experiences, we’ll keep working at it to get where we want to be.”

“I think it’s terribly frustrating for all of us, we’re desperate to get over the line, you see a lot of good stuff done, but too many errors to allow the opposition to get up on the scoreboard,” Borthwick tells TNT Sports.

“It’s important to credit South Africa, for a large part of the game, they’re an incredibly well coached team, we went toe to toe with them.

“You look at the game, the number of errors in the opposition’s 22 in the final 15 minutes, we hade enough, we had enough opportunities to score and win the game.”