Boks bounce back to trump England

South Africa bounced back from a shock defeat by Ireland with a 31-28 victory over England on Saturday, as world champions New Zealand could afford to field a largely second-string team but still beat Scotland 24-16.

France notched up a thrilling 29-26 victory over Australia, while Wales saw off Fiji 17-13 in possibly one of the worst matches of rugby ever to be televised.

The Springboks, 1995 and 2007 World Cup winners, ran out convincing victors over 2003 champions England in an enthralling match at Twickenham.

It was England’s second agonising three-point loss in as many weeks following the 24-21 defeat by New Zealand and their fifth in a row albeit four were against the All Blacks with this run their worst since they suffered seven straight reverses in 2006.

While Stuart Lancaster’s side matched the Springboks up front, they failed to offer much behind the scrum, but the coach insisted the World Cup in 2015 would be a different matter.

“This series is obviously about winning first and foremost and we haven’t achieved that in the first two games,” Lancaster said, with England having now also gone 12 matches without a victory against the ‘Boks.

“We’ve also talked about learning and developing as a group as we go into the World Cup.

“We need to narrow down in our minds who, when the white-hot pressure is on in 11 months’ time, can deliver. That’s when it really does matter.”

Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer, however, said his side had passed a litmus test after the Dublin debacle.

“Sometimes you have to have a game like this where you do the basics right, ground out a win,” said Meyer in an ominous pre-World Cup warning.

“That’s also Test match rugby and, for me, that’s World Cup-winning rugby. There’s going to be three knockout games and sometimes you have to play like this as well.”

France followed up on their 40-15 victory over Fiji with a hard-fought, thrilling 29-26 win over Australia.

With just a point between the sides at half-time (17-16), four second-half penalties from Camille Lopez (3) and Rory Kockott saw off a hard-pressing Wallaby team who scored a late try through lock Rob Simmons with the hosts down to 14 men.

After going down 33-28 to Australia last weekend, Wales went head-to-head with another pool rival, Fiji, from next year’s World Cup.

And while the French-Australian fare was a delight to watch, Wales played out a dire, error-ridden contest in the Millennium Stadium that would have left the 66,000-plus fans as frustrated as coach Warren Gatland ahead of clashes against New Zealand and South Africa.

“I thought it was a good display by the forwards but we weren’t clinical enough behind and we made too many turnovers,” lamented Gatland.

“That allowed them to stay in the game. What was close to being potentially a blow-out for us ended up being a dogfight.”

At Murrayfield, it took a 74th minute try from lock Jeremy Thrush to secure a 24-16 victory for an experimental All Blacks side in a tight contest with Scotland.

The Scots have never beaten New Zealand, but were scenting history and within just a point of the world champions on the scoreboard until Thrush crossed the whitewash and Colin Slade converted to leave the visitors with a flattering eight-point cushion of victory.

There was an unfamiliar look to the All Blacks’ line-up, although captain Richie McCaw and Dan Carter both started. There will likely be wholesale changes for the outing against Wales next Saturday.

“It was the perfect game for us,” said All Blacks coach Steve Hansen. “We knew the strength of Scotland and what they were going to bring. They’re an up and coming side.

“For this tour, we wanted to give all the young guys at least two opportunities. The USA game (a 74-6 win in Chicago on November 1) was the first one and this one was a big step up.”

On Friday, Argentina pipped Italy 20-18 while Ireland host Georgia on Sunday.

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