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England v South Africa Match Review - 2008
By Kath
November 24 2008
England v South Africa Match Review 2008. This was the third match up for England in this autumn's Investec Challenge Series. We all hoped for a much better performance than last week against the Wallabies but I have to say this was far worse and I am dreading next weekend when the All Blacks come to town.

  Investec Challenge Series 2008

England   6 v 42 South Africa  

England ’s bubble was well and truly burst last Saturday on the Twickenham Turf, the Springbok showed England how to play the game of rugby.  

Dejected England - Picture by Empics

South Africa deserved their win but it has to be said England played worse than the previous week and looked like a team of lightweights compared to the Boks.   The forwards once again did not provide quick ball, we had charge downs, handling errors, missed tackles basic school boy stuff really which all led to England going down to their worst-ever defeat at Twickenham.

England's Maligned - Jamie Noon tackles South Africa's JP Pietersen - Picture by Empics 

The Bok’s Ruan Pienaar, Dannie Rossouw, Adrian Jacob, Jaque Fourie and Bryan Habana (IRB Player of the year 2007), enjoyed their day out at Twickenham running the England side into the ground.

South Africa's Bryan Habana celebrates with J P Pietersen after beating England  Picture by Empics

We of course have a young team blah, blah, blah, try telling that to all those people who forked out good money to watch England play at Twickenham on Saturday.   I expected and they I am sure expected more from the Elite England Team than they got.  

England Team Manager  Martin Johnson said:

"This week we actually created try-scoring opportunities and didn't take them.  "They gave us a lesson in some areas of the game, the main ones being scoring tries and turning pressure into points," he told a press conference following the game.

"To lose like that at home is a big disappointment. They're still our best players and we need to stand up and be counted against arguably the best team in the world in New Zealand next week."

And what of Cipriani (unfair I hear you cry don’t single him out), Err why not?  Danny’s performance was below par again, even for a club game and is he not the one who is supposed to boss the game?  However, he was not alone the whole team lacked leadership from the Captain to generals on the field of play.  

Yep!  Jonno has a lot to do and this young England team I am sure has learnt some very hard lessons these last two weekends, lessons I hope that burn in their hearts for a long time.  Five years ago to the day last Saturday, Martin Johnson was lifting the Rugby World Cup trophy, how far have England fallen from that moment to my mind almost 10 years backwards.

England: Armitage; Sackey, Noon, Flutey, Monye; Cipriani, Care; Payne, Mears, Vickery, Borthwick, Palmer, Haskell, Rees, Easter.                                Replacements: Flood for Flutey (30), Ellis for Care (66), Hartley for Mears (58), Stevens for Vickery (53), Shaw for Palmer (32), Croft for Rees (79), Crane for Easter (69).

South Africa: Jantjes; Pietersen, Jacobs, de Villiers, Habana; Pienaar, Januarie; Mtawarira, Smit, du Plessis, Botha, Matfield, Burger, Rossouw, Spies. Replacements: Fourie for Jacobs (58), Steyn for Pienaar (64), Mujati for du Plessis (67), Ralepelle for Rossouw (32), Brussow for Spies (75).

Not Used: Bekker, Kankowski. 

Sin Bin: Mtawarira (30), Jantjes (64).

 

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