Saturday 26th May 2007
Preeti Virdee

58 - 10

The match was doomed before England had even arrived in Bloemfontein, since Coach Brian Ashton had taken the decision that no player involved in the European finals would be eligible to go on Summer Tour...that wiped out most of the squad. He instead chose to take an untested side with very few caps between them; with the exception of Captain Jason Robinson [43], and the other 2003 World Cup winning players Jonny Wilkinson [55], Mark Regan [33], Andy Gomarsall [23] and Iain Balshaw [29], the average number of caps is 3. The South African average is 29, with Captain John Smit on 64.

England arrived in SA to be greeted by the local press with accusations of being a third rate team of painters, decorators and part-time rugby players; Brian Ashton denied flatly he knew anything at all about it, "I have perfected the art of being useless at everything like that" - the hope was that he had not perfected the art of being useless at coaching. But jesting aside, this of course is grossly unfair; these players do a sterling job for their premiership clubs, but the step up from club rugby to the international stage is quite colossal for very young inexperienced players.

Then there was - and still is - the mysterious virus which has afflicted much of the squad, to the point of hospitalising Quins winger David Strettle. Though if the pundits were to be believed, thanks to the virus the final starting line-up for Saturday was an improvement on that originally announced.

The tone from management and senior players was positive but subdued. "I want a performance that reflects the hard work they've put in in training, and shows not just the physicality but shows the intelligence with which they trained" said Ashton. The management said the players had done as well as could be expected and in some cases more in training.

As for the Bokke, Coach Jake White's one worry was fatigue; the Super 14 had been running for 14 weeks already, and had started a month earlier than normal due to the World Cup in September, and the majority of the squad was made up of the Bulls and the Sharks who had battled it out for the title one week previously.

So the scene was set in the heartland of South African rugby, and as ex-England and British Lion Dewi Morris said, "reputations are there to be broken". The conditions were perfect at Vodacom Park Stadium in Bloemfontein, the City of Roses which sits 4,576 feet above sea level. And Sky commentator Stuart Barnes, in his own inimitable way made his predictions: "Mike Brown will out-kick Percy Montgomery; I didn't see any poise in the Super 14 last week; Percy is not in great form at fullback; South Africa will win by only 15 to 18 points".

The two sides were entirely mismatched, and one only had to look at the pack weights with the South Africans six stone heavier to see this was going to be a gargantuan task for England to match up to these titans of rugby.

Following a moments silence for 43 year old Springbok prop, Tommie Laubscher who passed away following a freak accident in the early hours of that morning, the game began. And it took England two minutes to concede the first penalty which Percy Montgomery popped through the posts effortlessly. Bokke captain John Smit reciprocated on behalf of SA and came in from an offside position to give Jonny Wilkinson a chance to equalise early on - he royally fluffed the kick and the score remained at 3 - 0.

Ten minutes in and Andy Gomarsall's persistent backchat - as is the way with so many world class scrum-halves - earned him a slap on the wrist from Kiwi Ref, Steve Walsh, but more troublesome were the unrelenting hits from the Bokke. After twenty minutes, surprisingly the stats showed that possession had only been 47% to 53% in favour of the South Africans, and England were fighting back hard, though not so effectually as they had conceded another penalty already. And to make matters worse, the England lineout fell apart in their own 22 leaving the far side of the pitch wide open for Ashwin Willemse to score the first try of the game with Percy cleaning up nicely after him; South Africa 13, England 0.

As England finally found some pace, Chris Jones threw the ball at no one in particular but instead gifted it to Bryan Habana, widely considered the world's best winger, as he charged the 80m to score the second try of the afternoon; despite Barnesy's comments, Monty was most definitely on form as he totted up the score to 20 - 0. Thankfully for England, Schalk Burger gave away a penalty to allow Jonny to redeem himself, which this time he had no problem with, but as the superior South African scrum attested, another penalty to the homeside took the score to 23 - 3.

England found a little passion, and Bakkies Botha got the 10m back treatment for punching Mark Regan on the ground, they advanced momentarily, but a Bokke turnover gave Jean de Villiers the opportunity to jig through the little defence that there was from his own 22 clear under the posts, and Monty came good yet again. At half time the South Africans were comfortably in the lead 30 - 3. And they looked as if they had not even broken a sweat; there had not been anything particularly clever on the part of the Bokke - mostly England had just given the points away.

Pat Sanderson replaced Andy Hazell in the second half, and the first fifteen minutes saw no points on either side, as England shut down the couple of opportunities created by Ricky Januarie and Ashwin Willemse, who was then replaced by the scrumptious Sharks versatile flyhalf and full back, Francois Steyn. South Africa turned over another England ball but luckily for the boys in white they knocked on, whilst Iain Balshaw was busy gashing his shin to rule him out of any further part in the tour. Replaced by the hugely underrated James Simpson-Daniel winning his 10th cap, England drove wave upon wave of attack on the Bokke defensive line, and as the pressure built, Simpson-Daniel, Toby Flood and Gomars showed real determination, despite lack of support preventing them from scoring this time; but only moments later thanks to Mathew Tait, Jonny and Gomars, Simpson-Daniel proved his worth and scored his third international try. With Jonny having found his kicking stride, the score looked slightly rosier at 30 -10.

Unfortunately it was all too good to be true as seven minutes later, with only ten minutes left to go, the very congenial Meneer Steyn made the break and created the space for Pierre Spies to pass out to Schalk Burger to score under the posts; Monty converted and the game restarted. And three minutes later Ruan Pienaar [no relation to the legendary Francois] charged straight through the England mid-field and passed off to young Steyn to rack up a fifth try; with Percy's conversion, they equalled South Africa's highest score against England of 44 when they beat them 44 - 21 in the 1995 quarter finals. A minute later, Percy charged and chipped over the top just enough for Habana to beat Billy Whizz aka Jason Robinson to the ball to break all the records. Another conversion and South Africa crossed the half century mark to glorious cheering and applause. SA 51, England 10.

But they weren't done yet - there were still three minutes to go - obviously plenty of time for any player in a green shirt to have a go, and finally prop CJ van der Linde hurled himself over the tryline to secure the seventh try. And with Monty's magic foot, as the final whistle blew South Africa was on its feet in jubilation at the complete whitewash of England 58 points to 10.

A very deserved Man of the Match went to Schalk Burger, who looked far less scary and threatening, and in fact almost soft and attractive as he grinned uncontrollably, "hopefully we can keep on building on this form".

The England camp, however, was far from pleased with not a lot to take from the performance. Captain Jason Robinson admitted "we're bitterly disappointed...there were basic errors...we weren't good enough". As England were simply out-muscled in every aspect of the game,  Coach Ashton had this to say, "this was not my worst nightmare...three or four players were on that field that shouldn't have been...we're not frightened of them." Maybe they should be. And as for his sticking to his guns on his no European final players rule, he has now about-turned on that too, calling up South African-born Bath and England prop, Matt Stevens. And to make matters worse, a directive has been imposed that it is the forwards' responsibility to protect injury-prone Jonny, who this time lasted 71 minutes until he was battered by his own team-mate and replaced by Toby Flood. We move from the sublime to the ridiculous - I was under the impression that we were rugby not football fans.

Since winning the 2003 Rugby World Cup, England has only managed to win three games away from home, twice against Italy and once against Scotland; they have not been able to beat a formidable side in four years, and it looks as if this will continue next week.

And South Africa? Yes they beat a second if not third string England side, but avenge the 53 - 3 massacre at Twickenham of 2002 they did. You only have to look at all the winners in rugby to understand one fundamental premise - it is all in the winning , and that winning is predicated by a positive mindset - the hunger, the passion, the drive and the belief has to ooze from every pore of your being to succeed; England had it in 2003, New Zealand have had it forever, winning the Tri Nations 7 times; the Australians are consistently accused of being arrogant, but are they? They are the only team to have won the world cup twice. The South Africans believed more than anyone in the world in 1995. And ask any international rugby player - the psychological advantage of winning match after match is monumental; it's not about who is in the shirt that you have just beaten; it's about the shirt itself. Right now, South Africa have the upper hand; even with the quota system being imposed on Jake White, they are producing world-class rugby. The Sharks and the Bulls beat all the Australian and New Zealand teams to challenge each other in the nail-biting Super 14 final. Whatever happens, they will no doubt go into the pool stages of the 2007 World Cup having beaten England on three consecutive occasions, with a team they have been building since 2004, a tactic that has been ignored by the RFU since Sir Clive left. South Africa is a team to be wary of - South Africa may just be on course to become the second team to win the world cup twice.

Images: ©Action Images, Jo Wallwork & Jill Tipping