AP

England's Lewis Moody, left, puts South Africa's Pierre Spies under pressure as he goes to ground after making a catch during the international rugby union match between England and South Africa at Twickenham stadium.

SOUTH AFRICA (6) 21

Springboks: Tries: Willem Alberts, Lwazi Mvovo. Penalties: Morné Steyn (3). Conversions: Steyn (1)

ENGLAND (6) 11

England: Try: Ben Foden. Penalties: Toby Flood (2)

Twickenham - This time four years ago, the Springboks broke a seven-match losing streak against England with a win here at Twickenham to end on a fine note a thoroughly disagreeable year. The next year they won the Rugby World Cup. On Saturday Victor Matfield in his post-match speech pointed out the similarities between 2006 and 2010 and spoke of an omen for New Zealand 2011.

He might well be proven right providing the Springboks can find a convincing pattern of play and a backline of skill and menace to add to their magnificent pack of forwards.

This was indeed a watershed game for both teams, both of them having won one and lost two in this autumn series. The question at kick-off was which team would slip down the slope and which one would scale new heights?

Well what was evident from as early as midway through the first half is that the much hyped England renaissance is just a tag premature and that there is a lot of fight left in the Springboks. The pons, bless their soul, for the past fortnight have been touting their team as the only realistic challengers against the All Blacks at the World Cup – based on ONE win over the Wallabies.

England were mediocre on Saturday and, to give credit it where it is due, much of that was down to the Springbok forwards bulldozing them on to the back foot, with mighty Bismarck du Plessis and Trojan workhorse Juan Smith in the vanguard.

And that forward effort was converted into a domination of possession and territory but not, crucially, into points in the first half.

Seldom in the game of test match football have we seen such an unholy butchering of points. Four tries went astral in the second quarter while Morne Steyn missed a sitter at posts and namesake Frans hit the upright from a long way out.

Earlier Toby Flood had kicked two penalties and Morse Steyn one, which had taken him past Nabs Butha 312 career points to make him the second highest scorer in Springbok Tests behind kicking coach Perky Montgomery.

But after 10 minutes of the half the Bok forwards had taken over and if they had had a backline behind them of even half-decent capability they would have been 20 points clear at the break.

Te be fair, there was a touch of bad luck when after series of forward rumbles, Matfield stretched over the line and as the ball was about to make contact with the try-line, scrumhalf Ben Youngs scooped his hands underneath. There there was a great opportunity down the touchline when Zane Kirchner, for reasons forever known only to himself, chose to grubber a kick forward for unmarked Lwazi Mvovo when a simple pass would have done the job.

Bok hands were again on their heads when Frans Steyn put Spies away only for the No 8 to take the contact from the fullback when Gio Aplon was unmarked on his outside.

Matfield had called for his team to be clinical in their execution – as he has done before every tour match – he got an exercise in the opposite.

There were other occasions when Frans Steyn’s ambitious long passes from midfield missed the wings but did find the advertising boards.

What was evident from on Saturday’s match is that Kirchner is not a fullback and Steyn is not a centre and should have been moved to 15 long ago.

In fact the backline looked more fluid when Kirchner went off injured early in the second half and Adrian Jacobs came on at 13 and Steyn moved to 15.

The Boks at last drew level just before half time with a Steyn penalty and then, vitally, Steyn kicked his third penalty a minute into the second half.

At half time there has been a dread among the South African supporters that the squandered points would come back to haunt the Boks. In boxing parlance, England had been on ropes but had not gone down and there was a feeling that England might come back with a sucker punch.

No chance. The Boks forwards had the bit between their teeth and clenched down even harder and there was no chance of England getting back into the game, and this time the Boks converted their domination into points.

In the 18th minute Willem Alberts, on for Deon Stegmann, found himself in space near the touchline after a fine build up through the phases and he crashed over for his third try in as many appearances for his country.

And 10 minutes after that his Sharks team-mate, Lwazi Mvovo, somehow exploded through a pack of English bodies on their 22m line to scamper home for a super score.

At 21-6 it was a hiding, and remained so in the psyche of the England players even when prop CJ van der Linde passed late to a three-man overlap and succeeded only in finding Foden, who ran most of the length of the field for a consolation score.

But for England, it was too little, too late.