England star Jonny Wilkinson scored 20 points as the World Cup co-favourites overcame a ferocious performance from South Africa to win 25-6 at Subiaco Oval here on Saturday.
Fly-half Wilkinson put on a flawless display with the boot to put England in pole position in Pool C — effectively condemning South Africa to a daunting quarter-final against New Zealand.
But it could have been a different story had Wilkinson’s Springbok counterpart Louis Koen not had a disastrous night, missing four penalties and a drop-goal attempt.
Koen also saw a clearance kick charged down midway through the second-half which gifted a try to England centre Will Greenwood that stretched his side’s lead to 19-6 at a critical moment of the match.
Two superbly taken late drop-goals from Wilkinson made sure of victory for England, who are now likely to face a straightforward route into the semi-finals.
The first-half ended with the two sides level at 6-6, Wilkinson and Koen each bagging two penalties a piece as both sets of forwards battled ferociously for supremacy.
Wilkinson opened the scoring after four minutes, nervelessly banging over a penalty from near the 10-metre line after Springboks’ centre De Wet Barry was adjudged to have not released on the deck.
The early penalty settled England who signalled their attacking intent with two surging runs from winger Jason Robinson one of which launched a move that nearly ended in a try on 11 minutes.
A cut-out pass from Wilkinson found Ben Cohen who fed to Mike Tindall, only for the Bath centre to be tackled into touch by Jorrie Muller just inches from the try-line.
England’s forwards looked to have got on top of the Springbok eight early on when they forced them offside at the first scrum. Yet South Africa’s defence held firm and Koen levelled the scores after a promising charge from No.8 Juan Smith ended with England winger Cohen infringing on the floor.
South Africa’s forwards grew in stature as the half wore on.
Lock Victor Matfield was immense at the line-out while the back-row of Corne Krige, Joe van Niekerk and Smith frequently rocked England backwards at the breakdown.
But their good work was not converted into points, Koen having a shocking first half with the boot — seeing a drop kick at goal charged down and four penalty attempts missed.
Instead Wilkinson restored England’s lead with a sweetly struck effort after Krige had slipped his binding at a scrum near the half-hour mark.
But England were clearly rattled by the physical South African challenge, with Greenwood blundering under his posts with a schoolboy error to give the Springboks a five-metre scrum.
From a subsequent attack South Africa gained parity, Lewsey tackling Muller without the ball as the Springboks threatened.
Lewsey was lucky not to be sin-binned for the challenge and South Africa had to content themselves with a penalty from Koen that levelled the scores at half-time.
The momentum was clearly with South Africa as the half ended but it was England who regained the lead after the interval.
Wilkinson knocked over his third and fourth penalties to give the English a six-point cushion but South Africa were a constant menace.
The Springboks came desperately close to scoring a try after a marvellous counter-attack launched from inside their 22 ended with lock Bakkies Botha tackled into touch by the outstanding Robinson.
It was as close as South Africa came to a try though.
Greenwood’s try put them out of sight and Wilkinson, growing in composure during the late stages of the game saw them home with two more from the boot. – Sapa-AFP