SPOTLIGHT: Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus did not want to sound “arrogant” when describing his team’s win against England at Twickenham on Saturday.

The world champions outscored their opponents by four tries to two to record a 29-20 win.

Wing Cheslin Kolbe was the star of the show with his all-round performance which included two excellent five-pointers.

It was the Boks’ second consecutive victory in the November Test window, ahead of their final clash of the year against Wales in Cardiff next weekend.

“It was tough and it was the same last week [against Scotland],” said Erasmus.

“One could probably say again that the score does not reflect how close the game was.

“We missed a penalty kick here and there and both teams had tries disallowed. It was competitive as hell.

“We had some disruptions with Ox Nche’s injury by not being able to do our normal swap around when we try to get the fresh legs on.”

Erasmus added: “We were certainly not happy with the performance, but if you beat England by nine points, it could come across as arrogant to say that.

“It wasn’t fantastic but we are content with the result.”

Erasmus also praised his team’s character for keeping England out after they were reduced to 14 me

Replacement prop Gerhard Steenekamp received a yellow card in the 68th minute for his team’s repeated maul infringements.

“I definitely think it is experience,” said the Bok coach.

“The team that we put out there played a lot of important games. Most of them played in the last match against Argentina in the Rugby Championship.

“Getting cards is not something that we are proud of, but hanging in there while we have a card definitely takes some character and good planning from the coaches.

“If Vincent [Koch] didn’t have the ability to go to loosehead, which we marked on the team sheet, we would’ve gone to uncontested scrums and had to play with 13 men.

“We would’ve struggled to keep them out if that happened because they were really doing well.

“The players on the field were cool and calm and handled it with experience.”

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INTERESTING: Steve Borthwick  claims on RFU’s  after England fall to the fifth straight defeat  

England’s win rate under Borthwick has now dropped below 50 per cent

Steve Borthwick insists he still has the support of the English rugby hierarchy

Steve Borthwick believes he has the “absolute support” of the RFU after England fell to a fifth defeat in a row by losing to South Africa.

The Springboks ran out 29-20 winners at Allianz Stadium on Saturday evening to consign England to their third defeat of this Autumn Nations Series.

The defeat is also the fifth Test that England have lost on the spin, which makes it their worst run since 2018. England’s win percentage under Borthwick has slipped to below 50 per cent.

Borthwick, however, believes he retains the support of the RFU and he is confident results will improve in the future.

“I am not going to be talking about private conversations with you here,” Borthwick said, when asked if he was worried about being give time to turn things around.

“And I think what is actually more important is the feeling that I get. The feeling I get from the RFU is one of absolute support and absolute belief that this team is going in the right direction. That is something I get from everybody at the RFU.

“I am very confident that we are on the right path and I am very confident that I am working with a great group of coaches, a great group of players.

“I am very confident that we will be on a trajectory where we are moving. We want things to happen now, it’s not happened now.

“We aim to put in a better performance next week against Japan when we are back here next Sunday.

“These are painful experiences right now. I think this adversity will, ultimately, be good for the team long term. It’s just very, very difficult right now.

“These are challenging days right now. They are development days for us. It’s painful. We will work through this and we will ensure we are a better team coming out of it.”