It was not England’s day, as they played well but couldn’t stop the Springboks, in their 7th loss to the South African side. England has not been able to beat the Springboks since November 2007.
It was England’s last international match of the year. England wanted to end their year with a winning notch but it was the Springboks, who succeeded in the end and beat England 21-11 in the match played at Twickenham stadium,
London last night.
England played 4 matches against the touring team during the month and ended their year with 2 victories and 2 defeats. They beat the Wallabies and Samoa, while losing to the All Blacks and the Springboks.
The Springboks have also played 4 matches on their tour of the British Isles and their record has been slightly better than England’s. They beat Ireland, Wales and England but lost to the far weaker side Scotland last week. They
will stay in London and will play one more match against the Barbarians on the 4th of next month.
The match started in England’s favor, when Toby Flood scored 3 points in the first 6th minuets of the match on a penalty, taking the lead over the Springboks of 3-0.
But Morne Steyn replied immediately and succeeded to get a penalty for his team, scoring 3 points for the visitors, equalizing.
Toby Flood scored 3 more points on a penalty giving England the lead once again but Morne Steyn again replied for the Springboks, scoring 3 more points, to level yet again with 6-6.
England faced two setbacks in the first half, when their consistent performer Tom Croft suffered a shoulder injury and left the field and few minutes later Toby Flood also left the field after he got a knock on his head.
The score was level at the end of first half with 6-6 points.
The Springboks started the second half very aggressively and their 15 consecutive points took game away from England.
First Morne Steyn took a penalty in the 3rd minute of second half and his 3 points on it made the score 6-9.
A few minutes later, Willem Alberts succeeded in his first try of the match and his 5 points made the Springboks’ lead even bigger with 6-14.
The Springboks got one more and their 2nd try of the match in the next few minutes and Lwazi Mvovo’s 5 points on it, put England under the huge deficit of 13 with the score at 6-19.
Morne Steyn consistently performed and made his team’s lead even more convincing when he scored 2 more points on the con, the Springboks reaching their final score of the match of 21.
England tried hard to level and succeeded in ways, when Ben Foden won a try and scored 5 points for his team but that was the last score of the match as time was up.
The match ended with a win for the Springboks’ with the convincing margin of 10 and the final score of 11-21.
The Springboks’ Captain Victor Matfield, who was very pleased with the win, expressed his views after the match and said that this victory will definitely help his team in the coming World Cup, trying to repeat their defeat of
England in 2006, where they won the World Cup.
Furthermore he said, all the players were hurt after last week’s defeat against Scotland but they rallied and won the match and now are confident again.
On the other hand, manager of the English side Martin Johnson said, although his team lost the match, he was still very happy with the performance of his young team. They played well throughout the season and he is very much hopeful
that this team will develop into a consistent winning group in the near future.
Final Score England 11 (6) South Africa 21 (6)
Scorers
England
Tries: Foden
Pens: Flood 2
South Africa
Tries: Alberts, Mvovo
Cons: Steyn
Pens: M Steyn 3
Referee: George Clancy (IRL)
Teams
England (15-1)Ben Foden; Chris Ashton, Mike Tindall, Shontayne Hape, Mark Cueto; Toby Flood, Ben Youngs; Nick Easter (capt), Lewis Moody, Tom Croft; Tom Palmer, Courtney Lawes; Dan Cole, Dylan Hartley, Andrew Sheridan
Replacements: Steve Thompson, Matt Banahan, Danny Care, Hendre Fourie, David Wilson, Simon Shaw, Charlie Hodgson
South Africa (15-1)Zane Kirchner; Gio Aplon, Frans Steyn, Jean de Villiers, Lwazi Mvovo; Morne Steyn, Ruan Pienaar; Pierre Spies, Juan Smith, Deon Stegmann; Victor Matfield (capt), Bakkies Botha; Jannie du Plessis,
Bismarck du Plessis, Tendai Mtawarira
Replacements: Adrian Strauss, CJ van der Linde, Flip van der Merwe, Willem Alberts, Francois Hougaard, Patrick Lambie, Adi Jacobs
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