Matt’s Armchair Player Ratings from Ellis Park: South Africa 45 England 21

So, from my armchair, what did I see? South Africa versus England, at altitude. Tough old game, this rugby union. The hosts took the victory, and in some ways they made it look easy; in other ways, not so much. It finished 45-21, and while that scoreline flatters South Africa slightly, England were second best for long stretches and finished the game down to thirteen men.

Late withdrawals for both sides evened things up in an odd sort of way. I’d have liked to see George Furbank at full-back; get well soon, George, appendicitis is not a good thing and moving Marcus Smith off the bench and into the fifteen jersey made sense given the circumstances. Henry Slade was also drafted in at the eleventh hour to cover the midfield, which tells you England’s back-line planning was probably being debated right up until kick-off.

Rugby at this level is brutal, and it’s even more brutal at altitude. But yellow cards can throw a game wide open, and I think the stats would bear out that we’re seeing more of them, and bigger scorelines as a result. With coaches able to deploy twenty-three players through the course of a match, losing a man to the bin is a different game altogether; no matter how good your defence coach is, going down to fourteen or thirteen is a very tough ask. England found that out at the death, with Tommy Freeman and Guy Pepper both sin-binned in the closing ten minutes.

So, let’s go through the player ratings from my armchair.

15. Marcus Smith: Started quite poorly for me, in let's say charitably, an unfamiliar role at full-back with some early communication issues on the high ball. But he grew into the game, and it was his vision and distribution that had a hand in England’s try-scoring efforts. A reasonable outing given how late he was thrown into the role.

14. Immanuel Feyi-Waboso: Showed flashes of his potential but was not overawed playing against world-class opposite numbers. Came off worse in the aerial battle for large parts, which is no disgrace against this South African back three.

12/13. Tommy Freeman and Seb Atkinson: I felt Atkinson continues to grow into the role, and his distribution before contact was a real positive. I just wish the England coaching staff; Borthwick, or whoever’s setting the back-line, would agree to keep Freeman on the wing. I’m not saying he doesn’t have the tools for centre, but against the world champions, any weakness in that channel gets exposed. He was shifted out to the wing in the second half and looked more at home there, before picking up a yellow card for a high tackle late on.

11. Cadan Murley: A strange sort of day for him. The new rules around aerial contests left him exposed a couple of times, and he took some big hits in the back after claiming the ball in the air but held up well under it. A couple of moments in broken play where I thought he might produce something special.

10. Fin Smith: Heroic. Chapeau. Kept trying to take the game to the line even when England had no front-foot ball to work with.

9. Jack van Poortvliet: Struggled a little for me. His box-kicking looked aimless for long periods. The irony is that South Africa’s box-kicking looked scrappy on the TV coverage, but it kept creating broken play that let them seize the advantage; England’s kicking just handed the Boks clean possession back. That contrast, more than anything, summed up the gulf in game management.

1. Ellis Genge: Stood up well and led from the front, capping a big shift with a try of his own.

2. Jamie George: Captained the side well. But whether it’s George or Luke Cowan-Dickie wearing the two shirt, England do seem to be struggling for genuine go-forward at hooker at the moment.

3. Joe Heyes: Exceptional at tighthead. Probably my England player of the match.

4/5. Alex Coles and George Martin: Both did great work in a hugely physical battle up front, and it showed in the collision stats.

6/7/8. The back row: I genuinely felt the back row worked hard, but I didn’t think they created the dynamism this fixture needed. Up front generally, England no longer seem able to change a game the way they once could; hard yards put in, but without the X-factor moments that turn a Test at altitude. Ollie Chessum had an overall good game, but one slip in a guarding role in midfield created the space for South Africa’s scrum-half to score. That’s how fine the margins are up there.

So that’s how it went; a bruising, high-scoring opener at altitude, decided as much by discipline and broken-field kicking as by the set piece.