@Springboks
England scored a hard-fought 27-26 win over the Springboks at Twickenham on Saturday to dash the South Africans’ hopes of ending the Castle Lager Outgoing Tour of the United Kingdom unbeaten.
The English scored three converted tries and two penalty goals while Makazole Mapimpi dotted down his 20th try for the Boks.
Handre Pollard (5), Elton Jantjies, and Frans Steyn contributed the rest of the points via penalty goals.
England went into the break with a deserved 17-12 lead, having done most of the attack and forcing the powerful South African scrum and lineout into uncharacteristic penalties.
In a frantic end to the match, Bok skipper Siya Kolisi was yellow carded as he attempted to win a high ball, only succeeding to tackle the English opponent in the air.
England flyhalf Marcus Smith had the last say when he kicked the winning penalty in front of an ecstatic Twickenham crowd.
“This was a spanner in the engine,” said Springbok coach, Jacque Nienaber.
“It would have been lovely to end the year with a win. That’s the third time this year that we have lost the game when we’ve been leading by one or two points at 78 minutes, so it’s very disappointing. It’s something that we’ll have to look at and improve on," he said.
Springbok captain Siya Kolisi praised the mental strength of the team both in their second-half fightback to take the lead and for maintaining their spirit during a COVID-ravaged year season.
“Mentally this is a strong team – to go through what we have gone through was really tough,” said Kolisi.
Scorers:
Springboks 26 (12) – Try: Makazole Mapimpi. Penalty goals: Handre Pollard (5), Elton Jantjies, Frans Steyn.
England 27 (17) – Tries: Manu Tuilagi, Freddie Steward, Raffi Quirke. Conversions: Marcus Smith (3). Penalty goals: Smith (2).
(Source:@Springboks)
