1. Ox Guard
Gave Stuart plenty to worry about as expected at the scrum and his acceleration was notable hunting down England carriers. Sadly forced off early. 7/10
2. Bongi Mbonambi
Radar wasn’t working perfectly at the line-out and off his feet giving up a penalty. Not one of his better days and he’s had several of those. 5/10
3. Wilco Louw
His first Test since 2021 and had the nudge early on Genge, earning the first scrum penalty too. Missed Underhill running a sharp angle for one try. 7/10
4. Eben Etzebeth
Caught out blitzing trying to hunt down Smith but bounced back, hounding Van Poortvliet at almost every box-kick with multiple charge downs. One rare drop and pinged for playing Cunningham-South in the air. 7/10
5. RG Snyman
Genuinely beautiful line-out steal at the tail against Itoje and at 6ft 9in carries like an escaped giraffe when in space. Some player. 8/10
6. Siya Kolisi (c)
Smoked Earl in one early tackle and cleared out each ruck with his usual intensity, also combined well with Jasper Wiese in defence. 7/10
7. Pieter-Steph du Toit
Soft penalty for a player of his experience gifted England three points, and how did he respond? With a superb charge down of Smith to score. Pinged late for pulling players out of the maul. 6/10
8. Jasper Wiese
Combined with Kolisi for a huge hit on Itoje and the two paired up again for a jackal penalty on Freeman. Good carrying effort too. 7/10
Replacements
Malcolm Marx (Mbonambi, 45) – On the wrong end of an Itoje neck roll, although it did rule out an England try. Bad overthrow for his first line-out. 5/10
Gerhard Steenekamp (Nche, 32) – Collapsed at one scrum against Stuart when South Africa were well positioned and later yellow-carded after multiple team infringements. 4/10
Vincent Koch (Louw, 41) – Scrum wasn’t quite as effective with him on for Louw but a good turnover penalty with six minutes left. 6/10
Elrigh Louw (Du Toit, 60)
Kwagga Smith (Wiese, 60)
Cobus Reinach (Williams, 60)
Handre Pollard (Libbok, 45) – One mega catch under real pressure from Freeman and won the crossbar challenge with one long-range penalty. 6/10
