I am a fervent England supporter who has being living in New Zealand for the last three years. It pains me to say that I don't agree with Jonny and that for the first time in probably twenty years or so, Engalnd has fallen way behind the other leading rugby playing nations. The game in England is slow with too much focus on forward play - this used to be Engalnd's strength but now NZ and SA can match them and better them in this department. The forwards lack the ball skills of the New Zealand forwards and the backs, whilst fast, currently lack the physical presence to break the line. I only hope things can improve, but I fear that it won't be in time for this year's world cup. One thing that should happen is that the RFU/Premier League should limit the number of southern hemisphere and other six nations journey men playing in England who are preventing young English players from getting weekly exposure to top level rugby.

Alec, Auckland, New Zealand

It is strange that a squad player is allowed to write in the press in this way. Yes, over 6 weeks the scoreline may get closer and closer, primarily because the SAs would get bored at scoring 7 or 8 tries a game.
As Ashton has said, there are few certainties for the England RWC squad. They have more players than most other countries but through poor management since the last RWC they have been unable to fine tune their squad, let alone their best XV. Whatever gloss Jonny puts on it, this tour has not helped Ashton in any way.

David, Kettering,

Excuse me but what planet is JW on? The Boks racked up over 100 points against England, handed them one of their worst ever defeats, outplayed them in every respect and yet he claims

"we had an opportunity here on the field that we missed."

Yeah right...missed opportunity....perhaps he meant the opportunity to stay in the dressing room

Dave, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

It's so terrible to read about England 'losing'. Will we never stop using such judgemental language ? As Jonny Wilkinson pointed out : if you "put the scorelines aside"; and remember that it was all about "an opportunity ... missed"; that they were "never beating us from the first minute" (only at the ends); and that it's all about "facing challenges", you realise that as long as you're 'developing' and 'taking lessons on board', there's no need to actually 'win'.

Jonny, your assessment would do Tony Blair proud. You should have written a bit on that famous RN victory over the Iranians a while ago, when our brave, stoical seapersons showed them what we are made of.

Of course, the Aussies, Kiwis, and Springboks will once again start using horrible terms like 'whinging Poms'. But WE know the New Britain is all about 'moving forward' , and not 'turning the clock back' to a time when Englishmen admitted they had lost fair & square, and quietly determined to do better next time.

L Stewart, Spalding, England

Personally I think england were very fortunate not to be hammered by larger score lines! JW is living in fantasy land if he thinks that England were able to match up for certain periods in the game. Let's just be brutally honest for once and let's forget about trying to blow smoke up each others rear ends. England have no chance in beating the Boks because the Boks are bigger, better and faster than them in every single department of the game! Even JW will struggle to make this SA team, and if JW and Ashton think that they have learned anything from the Boks they would be playing straight into Jake White's hands because the Boks showed them absolutely nothing. SA could have gotten together a day before the game and on individual brilliance alone beaten these second rate rugby players donning the famous Whites of England!

Jan De Wet, Pretoria,

Justin,

Sorry. England beaten on all counts and before they took to the field. SA only their second game together and three more stars to come back. A couple of Tri Nations games will battle harden them and atone their minds to serious competition. England training camps and some infighting will not prepare them well unfortunately.

Dave Robinson, Cambridge,

I'm inclined to give more weight to the views of the captain of England and world cup winner than Dave from Cambridge... Good spirit showed by the team and I look forward to resuming business as normal service against SA.

Jon, Kent, UK

It looked to me like the Boks were half asleep for the first half not that England were matching the rampant Boks, as Jonny describes it. When the Boks realised they had to put some effort in then they were indeed rampant and England took an absolute smacking. Nice spin however Jonny.

Duncan, Hong Kong,

Well said Jonny, and in the words of Winston Churchill, "success is the ability to go from one failure to another, with no loss of enthusiasm."

Elly, Plovdiv, Bulgaria

As a South African, can I just say how impressed I was by Wilkinson and the rest of the English team during your tour.

Sport hopefully isn't always about the result (easy for me to say after we won...) but also how your team conducts itself. Faced with adversity and illness, I for one was impressed with your response to that - you didn't make excuses and you maintained a positive outlook throughout.

(Compare this to one of the blackest days in Sprinbok history when you thrashed us at Twickenham, when our players resorted to thuggery.)

Maybe it's true that you can judge a man better by how he acts when he loses, than how he acts when he wins.

I still think we'll beat you in the World Cup, though!

Greg, Cape Town, South Africa

The assupmtion is that the SA team will keep improving, maybe or maybe not. But wait, they're pretty much full strength at the moment. Throw a few injuries into the mix and perhaps a walloping in Dunedin when they play the Kiwis in the 3 weeks and we'll see what they are made of.

Yes they do look good but their second string didn't look great against Ireland last year did it?

Giles, Oxford,

Excuse me but what planet is JW on? The Boks racked up over 100 points against England, handed them one of their worst ever defeats, outplayed them in every respect and yet he claims

"we had an opportunity here on the field that we missed."

Yeah right...missed opportunity....perhaps he meant the opportunity to stay in the dressing room

Dave, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

I doubt whether any of the six top teams in the world would be able to put in a good show with a sub-strength team against a full strength opposition. I do not agree with JW on a couple of issues. Firstly it was rather fortunate for England to be ahead after the first half. All points being scored from mistakes by the Springboks (penalties and intercept). Secondly the Springboks also did not play well as a team in either test matches but scored points on individual brilliance instead. The Springbok squad came together 5 days before the first test. The Springboks with current players can still improve immensely. The only problem is that when these two teams meet again in the WC the Springboks will probably be sub-strength and despondent due to political interverence and quota demands. It will also be at the end of a long season with lots of injuries and sore muscles. The northern hemisphere teams have a huge chance to upset the Southeners if for this reason alone.

Lourens , Pta, South Africa

I am a very proud South African and a dire Springbok fan. Seven years in this country though, and a few losses to England, have taught me a bit of humility in victory. I am proud of the boys. I do however think that when you add back the Heineken cup players, England will be more formidable. Not as formidable however as when you add Os Durant, Fourie Du Preez and Jaque Fourie to the South African side. Its almost a perfect 1 to 15 in that case. Good luck in the WC England, and good luck to Wilco (the man is a legend up their with Mcaw and Carter) in particular but I recon you are going to loose in the quarter finals.

Brett, London,

What strikes me is that if we had 14 other players with the mentalty, never mind the ability, of Wilkinson we'd be unbeatable.

He's far too diplomatic to say what everyone else knows: that the squad that went to SA bears no resemblance to the team that will go the World Cup.

Considering the level of ability of some of the players in the team on Saturday and the illness that swept through the camp, yes it was a miracle that we were able to match them for an entire half. On that basis, there are positives to be taken from this tour.

And if nothing else, it's given Wilkinson some valuable game time in the run in to the World Cup.

M Wardle, Bournemouth, Dorset,

I have nothing but admiration for Johnny Wilkinson, his attitude, committment and drive exceed others. But, self delusion seems to be the motto of the England team.

Matches are won and lost in the last twenty minutes, its that period that seperates the men from the boys.
All the hype merchants in the world will put positive spin on England's performance, but, unfortunately thats all it is, spin.
Perhaps Ashton saw Colin Charvis play for Wales and thought, "I know, lets phone Lawrence"
It probably will work, but, it will not win the World Cup.
Its the last twenty minutes that will win the World Cup, and England are not competitive in that area, sadly.

David Edwards, Burnham on Sea,

As an englishman I find this very hard to swallow. We were smashed on all accounts and the springboks, true to form, didn't consider the opposition worhty of their best efforts, until they needed to in the second half, and my god was it one way traffic then!

Justin, London,

Dave I disagree. What allowed them to pull away was our lack of experience and the fact that these boys have not played much rugby together. JW nails it on the head. the 2nd test showed we had learned from the first. We were competitive for longer periods and the 'rookie's' of the side matured as players.

Our boys now get a break before thay can fet into a well planned camp, where as the SA boys have the task of the tri-nations, which is bound to fatigue a few players, as it showed in ours on Saturday

Tommy P, Chichester,

No, no,no,no,no. Every team that loses has a period of being able to match their victors. Victors become victors because the loser can not match them for the entire game.

South Africa, like many victors were in cruise control once they new they had the game won (ie before it started). They sepped it up when they needed to and played England like puppets. In control the whole game.

Positives come out of every game. Don't you think that tere is the possibility that this SA team will be even better by World Cup time. They've only played two games.

Dave Robinson, Cambridge,