England vs. South Africa: Winners and Losers from Twickenham

Played two, lost two.

A dry start to autumn has become England’s wet winter of discontent after going down 31-28 to South Africa.

Stuart Lancaster’s side failed to end an eight-year losing streak against the Springboks, going down to an experienced outfit who raced into a 20-6 lead.

England roared back with two driven tries as the Boks lost Victor Matfield to the bin, but the nous of the visitors came to the fore as they wrested back the initiative and quelled the English fire.

South Africa have redeemed themselves for last week’s defeat to Ireland, while England are left with more questions than answers as they go into a clash with Samoa next week.

Here are the winners and losers.

The Saracens man is supposed to be England’s strongest ball-carrying threat.

Vunipola was smashed back in his first carry, a move that ended up with Danny Care scrabbling about on the floor for the ball. At the next ruck, England conceded a penalty as the Boks flooded through.

He then committed two knock–ons as he carried into contact, and as if that wasn’t enough, he was then turned over from a pick–up off a scrum 10 metres from South Africa’s line.

This all came in the first 40 minutes, a period when England enjoyed dominance of territory and possession.

Unacceptable from a player this side looks to in order to take them forward and over the gain line.

A massive display from the talismanic South African back-rower.

South Africa’s defence was impenetrable anywhere England tried to knock on the door, but their best work was done at the breakdown, and it was Burger who was the destroyer-in-chief there.

He forced turnovers, slowed down English ball and scored a try himself.

The Incredible Schalk still has much to contribute to this South African team.

What a contrast we saw between these two sides in their ability to take an opportunity.

England’s Dave Attwood was set free down England’s right and failed to draw his man and feed Anthony Watson on his outside.

A certain try had been thrown away.

Just after the restart, Willie Le Roux showed him how to do it, latching beautifully on to Pat Lambie’s delicious chip, drawing two English defenders and timing his pass out the back of his right hand to Cobus Reinach.

England have to get better at taking these chances if they want to beat the best teams regularly.

The young Sharks playmaker is used to skipping across bone-dry surfaces, slicing and dicing teams in the Super 15 and Currie Cup.

He is also used to the role of bit-part man for the national side. He is pretty good at it, too. It was Lambie who rose from the bench to knock over a 50-metre penalty at the death to beat the All Blacks in the Rugby Championship.

This week, he was handed the keys to the car after coach Heyneke Meyer wielded the axe following the Boks’ defeat to Ireland.

And in the wet, he put in an accomplished, thoughtful performance at fly–half.

His head was up and his actions were swift when he chipped over the top for Cobus Reinach’s try.

He was alert to the vulnerability of England new boy Anthony Watson on the right wing, and his goal-kicking bore only one blemish in untrustworthy ground conditions.

He applied the coup des gras with a well-taken drop goal inside the last four minutes to finish England off.

Man of the match.

Last week, England failed to capitalize on a man advantage against New Zealand when Dane Coles was yellow-carded.

This week, when Victor Matfield was given a 10-minute rest, England found their ruthless streak, driving two lineout mauls for 14 points while the big man had a rest.

Granted, it was smart thinking to add the inside backs to the rumbling posse of white shirts to capitalize on the numerical advantage, but Matfield’s absence was the root cause of those scores.

Having run an excellent Boks lineout all day, he must have been feeling sick to the pit of his gut watching those tries go over.

He was let out of jail somewhat when his remaining team-mates fought back and rumbled Schalk Burger over to regain the lead as his sin bin period expired.

England’s lineout functioned well in the wet, with Dylan Hartley hitting his men all afternoon until he got sin-binned.

The quality didn’t suffer in his absence barring one last blip, so at least Stuart Lancaster can rest easy that his team’s set piece is in, er, one piece.

The scrum functioned well, too. Safe to say that the problem is not England's forward unit.

Straws clutched.