‘Bok halfbacks can be proud’

What former Springbok coach NICK MALLETT had to say on SuperSport about the Springboks' victory over England at Twickenham.

On Pat Lambie and Cobus Reinach

'Our young halfbacks played well. Reinach and Lambie can be very proud of their performances today. We talked at half-time about how England weren't using the chip kick. Wasn't it interesting that the first thing the Boks did in the second half was exploit England's flat defence. That chip from Lambie was magnificent. Willie le Roux probably called it from outside and he put it on a tiki.

'Just in the scheme of controlling a game of rugby, we were leading by five points and Lambie's drop goal put us more than a score ahead. There was some good play by the forwards to get us into the position, and he took the three points well.'

On the refereeing

'Steve Walsh made a decision that had a really important affect on the game. He did warn both captains that the next person to transgress at the rolling maul would be off. So off goes Victor Matfield and England score two tries in five minutes. Walsh brought England completely back into the game.

'There always seem to be some controversy around Walsh. Even though he did warn the players and we should've been more careful.

'They had two or three penalties for taking jumpers in the air. They were collapsing the maul. They were going around from the wrong side, even once they'd engaged the maul. They were trying to defend our maul but it was being refereed in a very odd way tonight.'

'The touch judge thought Bryan Habana carried the ball out – that he caught the ball and then put his foot out. But he was incorrect. They then get the throw in, score a try and Jean de Villiers goes to the ref and says, “Won't you go have a look at that, you got that wrong?” But it's too late.'

On the driving maul

'The driving maul is such a frustrating thing. There were three tries scored from it today – two by England and one by South Africa. There was a yellow card against South Africa and one against England.

'Surely we've got to look at this area of the game. Why can't you tackle a maul? You can tackle everywhere else, so why can't you tackle a maul? They say it's dangerous, but it's no more dangerous than a tackle in midfield.'

On the Springboks' response after defeat against Ireland

'The Boks were nervous of being humbled or humiliated – they didn't want to lose to England – the motivation today was far greater than last weekend. They were so focussed and we saw it on defence – the pressure we put on the English ball-carriers and how we scrambled. It was like night and day compared with last weekend, where we went in a bit complacent.'

On the Boks' next match against Italy

'Heyneke Meyer's got 30-odd players on this tour, so a lot of guys are not going to get game time. I think it's a great opportunity to see whether our scrum can survive without Jannie du Plessis.

'I'm not sure that Coenie Oosthuizen is a world-class tighthead. In fact I'm sure he's not.

'Maybe Julian Redelinghuys will come into the mix against Italy and let's have a look and see what he can do on the tighthead, because we're desperate to get a replacement that can alleviate Jannie's workload at the moment.'

Five lessons from the Twickenham Test

Photo: David Rogers/Getty Images

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