AUSTRALIA: Latham; Sailor, Turinui, Giteau, Tuqiri; Flatley, Gregan (c); Young, Paul, Baxter; Harrison, Vickerman; Smith, Waugh, Lyons. Reps – Cannon, Dunning, Samo, Hoiles, Henjak, Mitchell, Rogers.

SCORING SEQUENCE: 15m – Paul try, Flatley con 0-7; 27m Latham try 0-12; H/T 0-12; 43m Giteau pen 0-15; 48m Moody try 5-15; 61m Lewsey try, con Tindall 12-15; 64m Cueto try, con Tindall 19-15; 68m Giteau pen 19-18; 73m Giteau pen 19-21.  

Ref: Paul Honiss (New Zealand)

Attd: 73,000

Sale Sharks’ Charlie Hodgson was named Investec man of the match as World Champions England lit up Twickenham today crushing South Africa 32-16 in the cold and wet conditions.

Hodgson equaled England’s previous individual points record haul of 27 against South Africa, held jointly by Jonny Wilkinson and Rob Andrew, with a try, two conversions, one drop goal and five penalties.

But, it was just one big performance amongst many as Andy Robinson’s England bossed the game from start to finish against a nervous South African side who were never allowed to get into their stride.

There were none of the off-the-ball incidents that blighted the previous match between the sides two years ago at Twickenham, allowing England to play the game they wanted and dominate up front.

The back row of No. 8 Martin Corry and flankers Lewis Moody and Joe Worsley were outstanding, while locks Steve Borthwick and Danny Grewcock commanded the line-outs and loose play and, in the tight, there was none better than veteran prop Graham Rowntree.

The forwards domination also allowed their back division to go through their moves with Hodgson and both wings, Josh Lewsey and Mark Cueto, particularly impressive.

England Head Coach Andy Robinson said afterwards: “It’s always about how you perform on the day and seeing the team deliver in quite tough conditions was superb.”

He said of the players who had stepped up: “These guys will have been frustrated not to have had an opportunity in the last three or four years and today was their opportunity and they took it. The pleasing thing about it is that from one to 22 every player has bought into what we want to do and the way we want to play and they were led brilliantly by Jason Robinson.”

He praised the `immense performance’ from the forwards and Martin Cory in particular and said that Charlie Hodgson had a `mature game’ and proved that he was now able to get through the holes as well as  controlling the match.

Of the next week’s test match against Australia he said that the opposition were threats all round, in the width and the kicking game they play and if they get quality ball they can be a `dangerous side’. He was particularly pleased with the fact that the English players got in the Springboks’ faces and knocked them over.“They really knocked the stuffing out of the South Africans,” he said.

Hodgson gave England the perfect start by kicking a penalty in the opening minute when the visitors were offside at a ruck after losing the ball from England’s kick-off to Grewcock.

Having missed a host of kicks against Canada last week it was also the ideal start for Hodgson who, with confidence restored, didn’t falter for the rest of the game.

South Africa did draw level with the first of full back Percy Montgomery’s two first half penalties only for Corry to lead the charge back into the visitors’ half and for Hodgson’s kick to force Montgomery to kick into touch on the 22.

Borthwick took at the line-out with hooker Steve Thompson coming around to take at the tail and hand over to scrum half Andy Gomarsall whose neat little pass put Hodgson away on a dazzling run, the Sale Shark finally breaking wing Breyton Paulse’s tackle to go in under the posts and convert his own score.

England never looked back and 10 minutes later were 17-3 in front following Hodgson’s blindside break up the left wing that made room for Lewsey to carve his way in field. England won the ball at the breakdown and centre Henry Paul, deputizing at scrum half, put in a huge cross field kick for unmarked right wing Cueto to race into the South African in-goal area and touch down.

Hodgson added the conversion and wound up the first half scoring with a 30^th minute penalty within a minute of Montgomery’s second at the other end.

Leading 20-6 and in firm control England did concede a further Montgomery penalty five minutes into the second half but three Hodgson penalties sandwiching his own drop goal pulled England well clear of the visitors before their only try of the match in the 73^rd minute set up by fly half Jaco Van Der Westhuyzen  and touched down by turbo charged wing replacement Bryan Habana on his debut.

ENGLAND: Robinson (c); Cueto, Paul (Greenwood 71), Tindall, Lewsey; Hodgson, Gomarsall (Ellis 66); Rowntree, Thompson, White; Grewcock, Borthwick (Kay 71): Worsley (Hazell 71), Moody (Hazel6-13 bl), Corry. Reps not used – Titterrell, Sheridan, Cohen.

SOUTH AFRICA: Montgomery; Paulse, Joubert, Barry, De Villiers; Van Der Westhuyzen, Du Preez; Du Randt, Smit(c), Andrews; Botha, Matfield; Burger, Venter, Van Niekerk. Reps : Shimange, Van Der Linde, Rossouw, Britz, Claassens, Fourie, Habana.  

Ref: Alain Roland (Ireland)

Attn: 73,000

England captain and Investec Challenge man of the match Jason Robinson ran in a hat-trick as his side rattled up a record breaking score against the Canadians at Twickenham this afternoon.

The Sale Shark opened his sides account after eight minutes, added a second on 35 minutes and completed his afternoon’s work with a wonderful touchdown, jinking and weaving his way up the left touchline, on 49 minutes to send the 41,784 crowd into raptures.

In all England ran in 12 tries that also included two for both wings newboy Mark Cueto and Josh Lewsey and the winning margin could have been more had fly half Charlie Hodgson had his kicking boots on having missed with five conversion attempts.

Head coach Andy Robinson said: “Jason Robinson has been exceptional as a captain, he’s led from the front as expected. We know we have to step up for next week. South Africa have not beaten us for a couple of years - it’s going to be a tough physical game.”

Jason Robinson commented: “It was a good start for us. One of the most positive things was that we kept them to nil. For me it was  a very proud day. It was great to be captain and to score tries and get a result is brilliant.”

While Hodgson had a poor day with the boot his play with ball in hand was superb and it was his break and lovely long weighted pass that set up Robinson for the games opening try.

And Robinson also had a hand in England’s second, five minutes later, following scrum half Andy Gomarsall’s huge break off the base of a scrum. Robinson was hauled down in the Canadian 22 but the ball was played back to Mike Tindall for the centre to send his World Cup winning teammate Josh Lewsey away for number two.

Lewsey also scored the third try, latching on to Hodgson’s pinpoint cross kick, and on 30 minutes England were 22-0 in front after another well worked score with centre Henry Paul involved twice before his midfield partner Tindall touched down.

Hodgson, at last, converted but saw his next attempt rebound off the upright following a debut try for his Sale clubmate Mark Cueto put away by his club captain Robinson who topped and tailed the half with the second of his touchdowns.

It came from a superb England build-up that included good work from another of the newboys flanker Andy Hazell and an awesome pick-up off his toes by Robinson before darting over.

Leading 32-0 at half-time England had increased their lead within three minutes of the second half after Hodgson had embarked on a dazzling solo run from ruck ball 27 metres out from the Canucks line to touchdown and then kick the conversion.

Robinson completed his hat-trick six minutes later with Henry Paul knocking over the conversion from the touchline for a 46-0 lead as England began to ring the changes.

Andrew Sheridan came on for prop Julian White and Ben Cohen replaced Robinson with Lewsey taking over at full back.

Greenwood also came on for Hodgson with Paul moving to stand-off and Ben Kay replacing Danny Grewcock in the second row.

Greenwood made an immediate impact on the game by adding England’s ninth try following well won ball at a line-out from Kay and the forwards drive to the line.

Paul’s neat chip through the Canadian defence was judged to perfection for Greenwood to pounce.

Paul added the conversion as he did to England’s 10^th four minutes later following Ben Cohen’s big midfield break taken on by Gomarsall before unleashing Cueto for his second.

With all the tries scored by the backs up to that point the England forwards finally showed they could do it themselves with a huge drive that resulted in flanker Lewis Moody being driven over.

With three minutes to go England unleashed one last big effort as Tindall carved his way through the Canucks defence and found Cohen who was held up inches short of the line for replacement Hugh Vyvyvan to pick up and drop over the line.

It was a confidence boosting performance by England prior to their two matches against South Africa and Australia over the next two weekends with some notable performances.

None the least from Paul who had his finest outing to date in an England shirt while Cueto looked at ease on the right wing and Lewsey looked hungry on the left. Up front Moody and new flanker Andy Hazell both had storming games in the back row along with No. 8 Martin Corry who won a lot of line-out ball.

And, in the front-row, the veteran loose-head Graham Rowntree was impressive in all that he did. 

Canadian coach Ric Suggitt said:  "You never feel good when you lose games like that we need to improve our awareness on the field. We need to play more games of this quality. I would love to play England 20 times a year and I’m sure the players would love to too."

ENGLAND: Robinson(c) (Cohen 51); Cueto, Tindall, Paul, Lewsey; Hodgson, Gomarsall; Rowntree, Thompson (Titterrell), White (Sheridan 51); Grewcock (Kay 55), Borthwick; Moody, Hazell, Corry (Vyvyan). Reps not used – Charlton. 

SCORING SEQUENCE: 8m Robinson try 5-0; 13m Lewsey try 10-0; 20m Lewsey try 15-0; 30m Tindall try, Hodgson con 22-0; 32m Cueto try 27-0; 35m Robinson try 32-0; H/T 32-0; 43m Hodgson try, Hodgson con 39-0; 49m Robinson try, Paul con 46-0; 61m Greenwood try, Paul con 53-0; 65m Cueto try, con Paul 60-0; 72m Moody try 65-0; 77m Vyvyan try 70-0.