England coach Brian Ashton, without more than 30 first-choice players, and forced to shuffle his side this week because of a virus problems, said: “I’m not making excuses but there were three or four who shouldn’t have been out there at the end but they had to stay on because there was no-one else to bring on.”

Ashton said that back Iain Balshaw was having a scan on a shin injury while Jonny Wilkinson went off with a back spasm. Both will now face a fitness race to make the second Test in Pretoria on Saturday.

England captain Jason Robinson echoed the words of his coach, claiming: “At the end we were out on our feet.

“For the first 25 minutes of the second half we put up a good fight but towards the end they opened us up.

“We went in at half-time bitterly disappointed. We gave them two tries and you can’t afford to make basic mistakes against the likes of South Africa.”