England's autumn ends with loss

Another defeat for desolate Martin Corry and the rest of the England team

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Saturday, 25, Nov 2006 07:24

England's miserable run of form continued today as South Africa gained revenge for their defeat last week with a 25-14 win in the final autumn international.

After their narrow 23-21 victory England seemed to carry momentum into their second encounter with Jake White's men and quickly established a solid lead in the first quarter of the match.

However the tourists soon whittled away the advantage and once they had sneaked 16-14 ahead just before half time there was no catching them.

Andy Goode's selection at fly-half in place of the injured Charlie Hodgson had been touted as a return to a more conservative English style and it was the Leicester stand-off's expertise from the tee which dominated proceedings early on.

A trio of penalties took the score to 9-3 before a Mark Cueto try on the half-hour proved that head coach Andy Robinson's more expansive gameplan had not been entirely discarded.

Goode's bomb was collected by young centre Matthew Tait who was hauled down just short of the line but the Sale wing pounced to dot the ball down and maintain his impressive international strike-rate.

But the final ten minutes of the half saw that 14-3 lead evaporate as indiscipline allowed Andre Pretorius to slot two penalties to take the southern hemisphere side back into contention.

Prop CJ van der Linde barged his way through Josh Lewsey's tackle to crown a long passage of South African play with a try and send his team into the break with the lead.

Three second-half drop goals from Pretorius edged the Springboks over the horizon as England ran out of ideas for getting back into the contest.

The result places the harshest of spotlights on the under-pressure Robinson as Rob Andrew and the rest of the Rugby Football Union hierarchy ready themselves for a review of the series.