LONDON: England ended their 10-year winless streak against South Africa in emphatic style yesterday as they outclassed a desperately limited Springbok side for a 37-21 Twickenham victory that made it 10 wins out of 10 under coach Eddie Jones.
South Africa were in the game only for the first 20 minutes through the boot of Pat Lambie, but once England settled it was one-way traffic and tries by Jonny May and Courtney Lawes, his first on his 50th appearance, gave the hosts a 20-9 halftime lead.
England totally dominated the second half as two great dummies by scrumhalf Ben Youngs set up tries for George Ford and Owen Farrell.
South Africa were ragged and though replacement Johan Goosen crossed in a rare attack and Willie le Roux scored in the last minute they never looked like adding to their run of 11 wins and a draw against England since 2006 and have now lost five of their last six matches.
Meanwhile, Australia agonisingly snatched a last-gasp victory over Scotland for the second time in 13 months when they beat their hosts 23-22 at Murrayfield.
Centre Tevita Kuridrani’s forceful run and one-armed stretch to touch down on the line gave the Wallabies their second try four minutes from time and Bernard Foley’s conversion sealed the win in Edinburgh.
Australia made light of being a man down in the dramatic final minutes after replacement forward Will Skelton was sin-binned for dangerous play.
Two tries by exciting young centre Huw Jones in his first test start had raised the hopes of Scotland, who lost 35-34 to the Australians in last year’s World Cup quarter-final.
New Zealand ran riot against Italy, running in 10 tries in a crushing 68-10 win that drew a line firmly under their shock defeat by Ireland last week.
The All Blacks’ performance, following the end of their tier-one world record sequence of 18 consecutive test wins the previous weekend in Chicago at the hands of the Irish, was anything but smooth at times.
Yet having rested some of their best players, they were still a class above the Italians, who had hoped for more under new Irish coach Conor O’Shea.