By Chris Chaplin
November 21 2004

I have not seen one of these for a long time on this site: player ratings for the England team in their match against South Africa at Twickenham on 20 November 2004.
Graham Rowntree had a superb return to England colours in a real competitive match after last week’s training run against Canada. Eventually Jake White surrendered and Andrews was taken off. Dynamic in the loose dominant in the tight – pity that Rowntree, according to Barnes, bores in, well as his pals at Bath; Connolly and Foley say so it must be the case! Pot, black,kettle! 8/10

Steve Thompson put in some good work in the loose showing some nice skills. Scrummaged well but his throwing! Would have been marked higher if the gremlins had not returned. 7/10

Julian White added to his credentials as the best tight head in England and probably most everywhere else as he dominated and then destroyed Du Randt. If he had a bit more to give around the park he’d be marked even higher. 8/10

Danny Grewcock had a solid game and did nothing wrong all afternoon. I’ve seen him more of a presence in the loose but what was heartening was that his discipline was good. 7/10

Steve Borthwick played as well as I can remember in an England shirt and put his more famous Bath partner in the shade. Ben Kay will struggle to unseat either of the Bath pairing. 8/10

Joe Worsley put in a thoroughly professional and understated performance. Absolutely superb in defence and took South Africa’s latest Golden boy, Burger out of play. The Wasp, as usual, also took the ball up well. 8/10

Lewis Moody started slowly but soon came to his game. Terrific in both the tight and the loose. By no means error free but has firmly staked his claim to take over the England #7 shirt where he looks most at home. 8/10

Martin Corry clearly relished his latest emergence from the shadows where Woodward kept him for so long while he selected other out of form players on reputation rather than form. It may be that I’ll see a better performance from a #8 and if so I’ll struggle to mark him. 10/10

Andy Gomersall had a curate’s egg of a game and he’ll have been disappointed with his second half performance in particular. Some poor kicking, sloppy passing and poor reactions were all areas where the Gloucester player will be looking to improve against Gregan and Australia in a week’s time. 6/10

Charlie Hodgeson came of age against the Boks when he coped with some sloppy service from his half-back partner to get his backs moving. Brought his forwards up beautifully, showed courage in attack and defence and kicked faultlessly. If he goes on playing like this how will Robbo deal with the return of hero Wilko? Had the Shark not missed Jaco VandeW, a miss that led to a try, then it would have been a perfect 10 as it is. 9/10

Henry Paul may just have shown why he should have had the inside centre berth last Winter for the Six Nations and gone down under instead of to America. Showed some real class in attack, great vision, lovely kicking, not least the laser guided effort that gave Cueto his try. Missed a tackle early on but otherwise a good performance. 8/10

Mike Tindall was consigned to the crash ball as part of the gameplan and so we didn’t see his skill. Some impressive siege gun kicks, selfless support play and great defence. 7/10

Josh Lewsey didn’t see that much ball but when he had the chance looked to be back to his best with some wonderfully elusive running. Stalwart defence when needed and support play of the highest order. 8/10

Mark Cueto was another player kept in the shadows by Woodward while he stuck with the Balshaws, Lugers and out of form Cohen. Cueto took his chance to rub the erstwhile coach’s nose in it with a great all round display of attacking rugby and support play akin to that of a flanker. Took Henry Paul’s superb kick in fine style and showed good awareness throughout. A fixture for me on the wing. 9/10

Jason Robinson used such ball as he had to great effect repeatedly evading the first tackle, often being first to the tackle area, cool and collected throughout and not allowing the nonsense of the week to affect his game. I wonder if coach Robinson is rueing his premature decision to anoint Jonny Wilkinson after seeing his namesake’s assured and mature captaincy. 9/10

Team
It was nice to see the team playing heads up rugby at last and looking freed from the stultifying influence of post World Cup Woodward. They did drop off their game for 15 minutes in the second half but in spite of that 8/10

Man of the Match - Martin Corry