JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) — South Africa tore apart England 45-21 after a stunning three-try blastoff in Nations Championship rugby at Ellis Park on Saturday.
The shock and awe start by the Springboks for a 17-0 lead inside the first 12 minutes gave the double world champions a cushion they rode to their biggest win over England in 18 years.
The English impressively fought back to trail by only three at halftime but they succumbed to South Africa’s heavy carries and ruthless finishing, and were down to 13 players at fulltime.
England has suffered five straight losses on the back of a 12-match winning streak.
England was barely sweating when Boks fullback Damian Willemse charged the tryline and prop Thomas du Toit burrowed over in the third minute. A Willemse chip and catch was followed by prop Ox Nche shrugging off England’s Ollie Chessum and Jamie George and shooting away for Cheslin Kolbe to cross in the right corner. Kolbe converted his try.
Nche left with a leg injury but moments later Kurt-Lee Arendse swept past Marcus Smith and over in the left corner. The first three entries into the England 22 netted three tries and the crowd of 52,790 was partying.
The explosive start made light of the late forced changes by the Springboks. Captain Siya Kolisi was ruled out by an ankle strain and Eben Etzebeth by concussion. England also had to reshuffle when fullback George Furbank was sidelined by appendicitis after working two years on his test recall.
Arendse was sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on and his absence was exposed well by England’s Fin Smith and namesake Marcus Smith to get a foothold in the game.
Stand-in skipper George had a try ruled out for being offside but teammate Ellis Genge tapped a penalty to himself and crashed over, then lock George Martin bulldozed Jasper Wiese and Kolbe to score his first try for England.
Down only 17-14, the visitors had physical momentum but in the new half they were slow out of the blocks again and South Africa was clinical.
Boks scrumhalf Grant Williams dummied and crossed for the bonus-point fourth try in the 45th minute, and Kolbe added the extras as he kicked better the longer the match went in his 50th test.
Center Jesse Kriel was next to score. The South Africa procession was interrupted by England’s Alex Coles then resumed after Tommy Freeman and Guy Pepper were the visitors’ ninth and 10th yellow cards this year.
South Africa completed the rout with converted tries to Malcolm Marx and Ben-Jason Dixon for their highest score and margin against England since a 42-6 result in 2008 at Twickenham.
Next Saturday, England returns home to play Fiji while South Africa hosts Scotland.
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