South Africa coach Harry Viljoen still found it difficult to erase memories of England's success at Twickenham eight days ago even after yesterday's victory.

"The England defeat was disappointing - we didn't play well, and I was disappointed in the manner that we lost," said Viljoen. "Our attitude towards the England game could have been better - we were in defensive mode - and I take the blame for that."

But Viljoen will have been encouraged by the way his team fought back from a 19-point deficit just before the interval yesterday, going on to score 24 unanswered second-half points.

"I wasn't that concerned when we were 31-12 down. We had done a lot of work, and at halftime it was just a case of cutting out the amount of possession we turned over."

Viljoen and his captain Andre Vos defended the decision to allow Braam van Straaten an injury-time penalty attempt, which deflected somewhat from a free-flowing spectacular.

Van Straaten was accompanied by raucous booing as he rifled the kick between the posts, but Vos said: "The guys were exhausted - I hope the crowd will excuse us that penalty."