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.

“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.”

"It's a game of fine margins,” George tells TNT. “Discipline, it's a different cause over five games. Fundamentally I think we are close.

“We’re working very hard as a team. We want to be winning these games, we know it’s not good enough.

“I hope they can see there’s a lot of endeavour. I couldn't be more confident, the character of the players, the staff, it's ironic saying this, but I think we have the right people and characters, I'm very optimistic about this team.

“Put in performances like that, I think it’s the sign of a good team.”

“The minimum is to find out what our strengths are, once we know that we can build a team around it, every game looks a bit different.

“You need consistency, look at South Africa's last 10 games, they do that every game. We need to work out what we do well.”

"It's too early [to say it’s a crisis],” Lawes adds. “We've got time, it's always in the build-up to the World Cup, there are things you want to win between that, but there's far to go.

“We’re nowhere near good enough. We can fix these things, given time. What are our goals? How do we get there? We should be doing better, but I promise you now, it’s not because they don’t want to do it. But they have to put that on the pitch.”

Ugo Monye disagrees, he says it’s “not far off,” adding: “This is so sub-standard.

“It has to be fixed before [the Six Nations]. One from four for English rugby is unacceptable, what other option do we have? It’s a dismal 2024.”

"We've got a lot of young players trying to gain experience as they go,” Lawes adds on TNT.

“But what we do need is consistency from the leaders, but there are too many mistakes from them at the moment and that goes to the younger players.

“We have to find our DNA and we’re not doing that.”

That’ll do it, Reinach ripped the ball away and then gathered the loose ball, it’s booted away and South Africa celebrate!

England had their moments, but it’s another loss, three successive, in fact, a miserable week ahead before Eddie Jones is back in town with Japan.

“This will be hard for the boys,” Lawes admits on TNT. “They have to develop as a team, it’s disappointing, but you have to get back up and go again.”

78 mins

Steenekamp returns from the bin! And that should be that!

Du Toit with a nasty wound to the right eye, blood trickling down the great Springbok’s face.

One more lineout for England to salvage something, it’s out the back and Smith gathers before being wrapped up.