Boks embarrass England

England suffered their worst ever defeat at Twickenham as World Cup winners South Africa embarrassed Martin Johnson's side with a clinical 42-6 victory.

Johnson's side had long spells of possession in opposition territory, but while the Springboks showed defiant defence they also showed clinical attacking play to punish any England error.

Danie Rossouw powered over for the South Africans early on and Ruan Pienaar charged down Danny Cipriani's kick to grab a try under the posts.

Adrian Jacobs scored a superb second half try and, despite the visitors being reduced to 14 men twice, England could not find the key to unlock a fantastic defence, while in contrast South Africa looked like scoring every time they had ball in hand.

Jaque Fourie and Bryan Habana added breakaway tries late on to really rub salt into the wounds and inflict a heaviest ever Twickenham defeat on England.

Inventive

England started brightly with an innovative short grubber from the opening kick-off from Cipriani forcing a penalty after catching out the Springbok forwards.

The Wasps man converted from long range, and when Conrad Jantjes then kicked his restart out on the full it looked like that surprise start had really shaken the South Africans.

Pienaar levelled with his penalty soon after, and that settled down the Springboks enough for them to force the opening try, when Rossouw motored over from 15 metres - taking three England tacklers with him.

Cipriani's nightmare came on 19 minutes when he took an age to get his kick away, enabling the lively Pienaar to charge down and stroll in under the posts for a gift of a try.

England launched a spirited response two minutes later with Danny Care's quick tap eventually getting Delon Armitage the ball on the right, but he was forced into touch just yards from the line by Bakkies Botha.

The Springboks faced the last ten minutes of the half with 14 men after Tendai 'Beast' Mtawarira was sin-binned for continually going to ground, handing England a big chance to get back into the game.

However, England did not have the imagination with ball in hand and, after continually kicking away possession, it was the visitors who pushed for the try despite having a man less before the half-time whistle blew.

Determined

England opened up the second half in spirited fashion and went on the attack immediately, with Armitage just kept out down the left flank by the pace of Habanna.

The hosts then camped out on the South African line, probing down both wings and with scrum-half Care inches from darting over from close range.

However, after 13 phases of play, the World Cup winners showed their famed defence by eventually snuffing out the danger and kicking clear.

Coupled with brilliant defence were lightning attacks from South Africa, and some silky decoy runs after a line-out saw Jacobs burst through and gallop over the line for a glorious try, which all-but sealed the victory with half an hour left to play.

The Springboks increased their advantage to 30-6 in the 63rd minute with another penalty given away by England, before Jantjes got himself yellow carded for a cynical block on Armitage.

Again though England could not even score a single point with a man extra, and again South Africa came closest to scoring in a passage of play that summed up the gulf in class between the two teams.

Fourie then added further gloss on the scoreline with a breakaway try and Habana really put the knife in with a score in the final minute to complete a truly embarrassing afternoon for England.