{"id":673940,"date":"2026-07-04T20:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T20:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/673940\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T20:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T20:00:11","slug":"south-africa-45-21-england-springboks-show-muscle-in-seven-try-nations-championship-victory-rugby-union-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/673940\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa 45-21 England: Springboks show muscle in seven-try Nations Championship victory | Rugby Union News"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Africa ran in seven tries in a brutal 45-21 victory over England in their Nations Championship opener in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n

England were staring another ominous defeat in the face from the moment tries from Thomas du Toit, Cheslin Kolbe and Kurt-Lee Arendse saw the Springboks storm into a 17-point lead inside 12 minutes at Ellis Park.<\/p>\n

England valiantly clawed themselves back into contention, reducing the deficit to three points by half-time after stunning solo finishes from prop Ellis Genge and lock George Martin.<\/p>\n

But South Africa ruthlessly reasserted their authority, with tries from Grant Williams and Jesse Kriel within 16 minutes of the restart.<\/p>\n

A depleted England – reduced to 13 men after Tommy Freeman and Guy Pepper were shown yellow cards – were put further to the sword at the death by late scores from Malcolm Marx and Ben-Jason Dixon.<\/p>\n

Springboks strangle England at altitude<\/p>\n

\"Kurt-Lee<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Kurt-Lee Arendse put South Africa 17-0 up inside 12 minutes<\/p>\n

Both sides suffered late withdrawals before a blow was even landed at Ellis Park. George Furbank’s return for England was halted by appendicitis, with Marcus Smith drafted in at full-back, while South Africa lost talismanic captain Siya Kolisi and lock Eben Etzebeth right before kick-off.<\/p>\n

Pieter-Steph du Toit deputised as captain in Kolisi’s absence and his namesake, Bath prop Thomas du Toit, delivered lift-off for the Springboks, powering over for the opening score inside three minutes.<\/p>\n

There was no respite for England as South Africa’s brutal start and display of power continued. A trundling line break from prop Ox Nche ended with Kolbe, on his 50th Test appearance, side-stepping around Cadan Murley for the Springboks’ second try in the sixth minute.<\/p>\n

\"Ellis<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Ellis Genge bulldozed his way over for England’s first try <\/p>\n

South Africa’s third visit into England’s 22 yielded a third try, with Arendse breaking through Marcus Smith’s tackle and dotting down in the corner to compound a sobering opening 12 minutes for Steve Borthwick’s team.<\/p>\n

But having weathered an almighty Springboks storm, England staged a stirring comeback to completely change the complexion of the Test match before the break.<\/p>\n

After seeing captain Jamie George’s try disallowed after he was adjudged to have gathered and grounded the ball at the base of a ruck from an offside position, England gave South Africa a taste of their own medicine.<\/p>\n

A brutal display of strength saw Genge sit opposite number Du Toit on his backside before breaking through two tackles to apply the finishing touch to a stunning solo score from a tap-and-go penalty.<\/p>\n

\"George<\/p>\n

Image:
\n George Martin’s try on the stroke of half-time gave England hope<\/p>\n

And after Fin Smith’s kick to touch on the cusp of half-time was ruled a 50:22, lock Martin was released down the left channel, where he bulldozed through Jasper Wiese and Kolbe for a converted try that slashed South Africa’s lead to three points.<\/p>\n

South Africa returned after the interval with renewed vigour and produced another devastating start to blow England away for the second time.<\/p>\n

Scrum-half Williams threw a superb dummy to snipe over from the base of a ruck and establish a 10-point Springboks lead before Jesse Kriel crossed in the corner to stretch it to three scores.<\/p>\n

\"South<\/p>\n

Image:
\n South Africa inflicted seven-try defeat on England in Nations Championship opener at Ellis Park<\/p>\n

Coles crossed for England’s third try with 12 minutes remaining, but two yellow cards in as many minutes for winger Freeman, for shoulder-to-head contact on Damian Willemse, and back-rower Pepper, for repeated penalty infringements, undid all of their hard work.<\/p>\n

Hooker Marx then scored his 27th Test try from a driving maul before forward Dixon touched down for South Africa’s seventh for the final word in a dominant Springboks display.<\/p>\n

‘England will be a better team’ – George<\/p>\n

England captain Jamie George: “The overriding messages after were we showed a lot of fight and character to stay in the game, and then we let it slip at times.<\/p>\n

“What we see at the top end – we’re playing at the double world champions – is the game is fine margins.<\/p>\n

“If we get into the sort of battle South Africa want – contestable kicking and capitalising on that – it’s pretty hard to get out of it.<\/p>\n

“We looked threatening at times, so it’s just our ability to make sure we keep doing that. Genuinely, I think we will be a better team off the back of this experience.”<\/p>\n

Springboks ‘made themselves proud’<\/p>\n

South Africa captain Pieter-Steph du Toit: “It was a tough game.<\/p>\n

“That’s the thing about England, we always know they are going to come back and won’t stop fighting. We just had to keep to our plans and execute them to perfection.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, we lost a bit of control in the second part of the first half, but by the end of the game we made ourselves proud.”<\/p>\n

What’s next?<\/p>\n

England return home to face Fiji at Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium (2.10pm) before South Africa host Scotland in Pretoria (4.40pm) on Saturday, July 11.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Africa ran in seven tries in a brutal 45-21 victory over England in their Nations Championship opener…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-673940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}