England's job well done

Icing on the cake: Luger's try

BBC Sport Online columnist Matt Dawson reflects on England's victory over South Africa.

England played very well to beat South Africa by 29-9.

As expected the match was confrontational which made the rugby rather scrappy at times, but overall England's was a great all-round performance.

The team and coaching staff have obviously had a good week and they fully deserved to win by that margin.

Robinson recieved some rough treatment

The first half wasn't full of flowing rugby as both sides tried to knock each other off their stride.

Early on, South Africa were giving Jonny Wilkinson and Jason Robinson a hard time.

South Africa thought that Jason might be the weak link, but he handled the pressure well.

The Springboks were quite physical on several occasions but any team has to do this at the moment.

England are a team in form and to beat them you need to be physical and at your best.

South Africa had a good spell for 20 minutes or so but they certainly didn't have the game plan or the strength in-depth that England had.

South Africa gave away three penalties in three minutes and if you give opportunities like that to a player of Jonny's calibre then we are always likely to win

Matt Dawson

It is always a lot more difficult to play away from home and, as the penalty count increased, Jonny's kicking saw the margin between the two teams increase quite quickly.

England have been criticised for not scoring enough tries but they are good at maintaining their discipline and making the most of penalties.

Today South Africa gave away three penalties in three minutes and if you give opportunities like that to a player of Jonny's calibre then we are always likely to win.

Most England players and fans wouldn't have minded if we had won 24-9. Dan Luger's try in the closing seconds of the match really was the icing on the cake.

All of the best international teams have a world-class kicker.

If you are going to give penalties away frequently you are going to lose points. Your defensive play and discipline must be good.

Jonny Wilkinson: World class

That's where England's strength really comes to the fore.

They can defend well and they don't concede many points. They rarely give penalties away so they stop tries and shots at goal.

So where do England stand after three wins in three games?

It is very hard to say which team might rank as number one in the world at the moment.

World order

Playing at home has certainly been a huge advantage to Clive Woodward's men. The true test of character will come in the 2003 World Cup.

If England could get all of their players fit and peaking at the right time then they could play better rugby than they are now.

At the moment there isn't really a gap between New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and England.

If anything, maybe England are a little ahead of at least two of that group.