England 23 South Africa 21: After nine months of hard labour English rugby finally has something to cling to. Not since February have coach Andy Robinson and his players experienced the rosy glow of a Test victory but to trumpet this win as the rebirth of the world champions would be absurdly premature. A couple of centimetres the other way and this morning's mood would be utterly different.
It is all very well for a hugely relieved Robinson to claim his team have now "turned a corner" but they did so courtesy only of a mighty shove from the Springboks. As the South African coach Jake White observed, this was a game the visitors could, and should, have won rather than succumbing to a sixth successive away defeat.
"We lost it more than we were beaten," he sighed, insisting the fateful 57th-minute substitution of his outhalf Butch James had been dictated by injury. "I can only put it down to having a lot of inexperienced players. I don't think they could believe they were 12 points ahead in the second half."
Without Josh Lewsey's corner-flagging crash tackle on Jean de Villiers, one of the finest examples of never-say-die defence in modern times, White's team would also have been significantly harder to catch than from 18-6 down. Lewsey made three other try-saving interventions from fullback and, despite kicking like a drain, deserved his man-of-the-match award. Only de Villiers, guilty of not passing to his unmarked inside man Akona Ndungane and later sinbinned after 47 minutes, ran him close as the pivotal figure.
The question now, though, is whether England's timely reversal of fortune actually changes very much. No one can dispute they displayed pride, character and guts to scramble back into a game of desperate intensity but such qualities cannot be coached. In pure rugby terms Robinson's men won "ugly", to quote the forwards coach John Wells, and lacked any kind of backline fluidity. At one point they went through 19 ultimately fruitless phases like muscle-bound hamsters trapped on a predictable wheel.
Tom Palmer at lock and the lion-hearted Martin Corry did most to keep them in touch before the returning Phil Vickery rumbled on to lead the fightback, driving unstoppably low for the 72nd-minute try which drew England level and gave the replacement Andy Goode the chance to settle things with a straightforward conversion.
Goode also applied meaty boot to ball at key moments, merely adding to the debate about Charlie Hodgson's influence. Sadly both Hodgson and Andrew Sheridan require scans to assess damage to a right knee and left ankle, respectively. Before tomorrow's team announcement for the second Springbok Test, it is Robinson's grip on the England tiller which remains the burning issue. "It has been tough, there's no doubt about it," said Robinson. "But I've always had total belief in myself, as a player and as a coach. If I felt the team or the management doubted me, I'd doubt myself but I believe I've had the right responses.
"I enjoy the pressure and I'm not going to shirk my responsibilities. You saw me as a player. I had enough kickings then. It's a lot harder on the floor getting your head kicked in at places like Newport." That hard-nut mentality also surfaced as he enthused about England's forwards knocking lumps out of each other in training. It was good, he said, to get back to the "old-fashioned ways".
If England want to revert to one-dimensional forward power and kicking the leather off the ball, they may have the right man.
If, in contrast, the English RFU's powerbrokers wish to stick to a more futuristic course in pursuit of wider longer-term objectives, they should bite the bullet, give Brian Ashton his head and end the current uncertainty.
- Guardian Service
ENGLAND: Lewsey; Cueto, Tait, Noon, Cohen; Hodgson, Richards; Sheridan, Chuter, White, Palmer, Kay, Worsley, Sanderson, Corry. Replacements: Goode for Hodgson (39 mins), Perry for Richards (68 mins), Vickery for Sheridan (49 mins), Mears for Chuter, Jones for Kay, Moody for Sanderson (all 57 mins).
SOUTH AFRICA: Steyn; Ndungane, Olivier, de Villiers, Habana; James, Januarie; van der Linde, Smit, Botha, Ackermann, Muller, Spies, Rossouw, Cronje. Replacements: Carstens for van der Linde (22 mins), Lobberts for Cronje (41 mins), Pretorius for James (57 mins), Pienaar for Januarie (73 mins), van den Berg for Ackermann (77 mins).
Referee: Steve Walsh (New Zealand).
