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Steve Borthwick vowed to use England\u2019s heartbreaking World Cup semi-final exit at the hands of South Africa to sow a seed for future success.<\/p>\n
Borthwick\u2019s unfancied side led by nine points in the final quarter and were on the cusp of a famous win until Handre Pollard\u2019s late penalty condemned them to an agonising 16-15 defeat.<\/p>\n
Many of England\u2019s players collapsed to their knees following a colossal, but ultimately unsuccessful, effort against the reigning champions on a sodden evening in Paris.<\/p>\n
While head coach Borthwick was similarly crestfallen by the dramatic late twist at Stade de France, he was proud of the efforts of his team and upbeat about what lies ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe came here with a plan to win the game and we fell a little bit short, not far short but a little bit short, so we\u2019re desperately disappointed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we all truly believed we could do it, we were going to do it, and we came very close to doing so.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn adversity, in these tough times, there\u2019s usually some seed of it there that will grow and be something brilliant in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now it\u2019s too early for me to find that seed but we\u2019ll make sure we find it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll make sure that we take some of what we find tonight, some of what we\u2019ve gone through tonight, we\u2019ll make sure we grab that and we\u2019ll make sure it makes us stronger in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Captain Owen Farrell produced an outstanding performance, kicking all of his side\u2019s points, including a superb drop goal.<\/p>\n
His efforts looked to be sufficient for victory but RG Snyman barged over for the only try of the match in the 70th minute to set up a grandstand finish.<\/p>\n
Man-of-the-match Pollard, who booted the Springboks to victory over England in the 2019 final, nailed the tricky conversion and then landed a monster penalty two minutes from time to inflict more anguish on the opposition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe players should be incredibly proud of what they\u2019ve done and continue to do as they represent England rugby,\u201d continued Borthwick.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know I\u2019ll have at home a couple of young boys who are going to be bitterly disappointed and I\u2019m sure there are lots of people that are proud but also gutted back in England, I\u2019m sure there are millions of people like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI care about these players, I care about these supporters, and I care about English rugby.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I see is a group of guys who are doing as much as they possibly can to set an example, to build a team, to have supporters proud of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re led by this man next to me (Farrell), who I think has been and continues to be a phenomenal player and an incredible leader of this team.\u201d<\/p>\n
New Zealand await South Africa in next weekend\u2019s final.<\/p>\n
Springboks head coach Jacques Nienaber praised his team\u2019s fighting spirit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI pay a lot of credit to England,\u201d he said. \u201cThey were outstanding on the night.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had a very good tactical plan and they put us under pressure. We will have to improve because it took us some time to get to grips with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the strength of this team is that even if we\u2019re not playing well we find a way to get the result.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took 80 minutes to get a foothold in the game. The team refused to give up and fought until the end.\u201d<\/p>\n
Springboks captain Siya Kolisi was convinced fly-half Pollard, who came on for Manie Libbok with only half an hour gone, would land the decisive penalty from just inside England\u2019s half.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had no doubt at all,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s done it for us before.<\/p>\n
\u201cEngland are a world-class team and completely different to a year ago. They had an amazing game plan which we took too long to adapt to.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese things happen but we dug deep to get the victory. Other teams wouldn\u2019t be able to get the win from this. I\u2019m not going to say it was ugly, we did what was needed.\u201d<\/p>\n