Relief of South Africa shows just how close England came to victory in Paris

Paris was quiet on Sunday morning. The rain had stopped at last and the wind, which had bent the trees and swept the leaves through the streets the previous evening, had died right down. The street cleaners were only just sweeping up the detritus of the night – ripped tickets, empty bottles, cigarette ends, cracked plastic glasses – and things that would be missed: hats, scarves, flags, even the odd dropped wallet. By noon it was all gone, the only evidence left were the bruises, headaches and memories. For one side the grim satisfaction of the win. For the other, the lingering confusion of the defeat.

Related: ‘Players should be incredibly proud’: Borthwick praises England after defeat

England’s fans weren’t left asking: “What if?” but: “What the?” It had been a strange game, almost impossible to take in at first viewing because while it felt for long stretches as though there was very little going on, it was in actual fact packed with telling little details that it would bear hours of study. More, for sure, than the night afforded. “Right now is not the moment for dissecting the game,” Steve Borthwick said. The England head coach will spend days, maybe even weeks, unravelling it.

England’s physical intensity was right there in the foreground, front and centre. And it felt for a time as though it would be the game’s defining feature. They took on one of the roughest, toughest packs ever put together, and damn near beat them at it. It was one of the great forward performances, the best an England team have turned in since 2019. Old Dan Cole, that quiet old soul, suffered one of the most difficult nights of his life when these teams played in the final that year, but he was formidable here. He is 36 and, if it is his last start for England, it was one of his very best.

End of the road
A number of England’s starting XV against South Africa are set to end their international careers after the bronze medal match against Argentina. Courtney Lawes, Joe Marler, Dan Cole, Courtney Lawes and Jonny May are in that category, Manu Tuilagi too, and, of the replacements, Danny Care. Of the 10 players who were not in the matchday squad, Ben Youngs – England’s most capped men’s player – will surely call time after what should be a swansong against Argentina. Jack Willis, Joe Marchant and David Ribbans will, as things stand, be unavailable for the Six Nations having moved abroad.

Question marks
There are a host of players the wrong side of 30 and while they may continue their England careers into the 2024 Six Nations, it is unclear if they will make it to the 2027 World Cup. Jamie George, Elliot Daly, Billy Vunipola, George Ford and Kyle Sinckler are in that number, as is the captain Owen Farrell. It seems inconceivable that Farrell will not captain England into next year’s Six Nations but there will come a point where the question marks over his place in the side that are rarely far from the surface will loom larger. Borthwick may be tempted to install Marcus Smith as his No 1 fly-half sooner rather than later.

The future
Borthwick was quick to point out after the match that England had seven players in the matchday 23 who are 25 or under. He can also add Smith and Henry Arundell to the list which already includes George Martin, Tom Curry, Ben Earl, Freddie Steward, Ollie Lawrence, Ollie Chessum and Theo Dan. Jack van Poortvliet will come back into the reckoning and Borthwick would do well to blood youngsters such as Chandler Cunningham-South, Tom Pearson and Dan Kelly at the earliest opportunity. Gerard Meagher

Same goes for his partner, Joe Marler. One of the lasting images of the night will be the pair rising from winning a scrum penalty five metres from England’s line, Marler, unhappy with something Frans Malherbe did in the darkness, quietly warning him not to try it again, and then apologising to the referee, Ben O’Keeffe, for talking over him. The game changed when the two of them made way. It began to slip away. They were the ballast that held England fast.

Behind them George Martin, only 22, came of age in one of the great breakthrough games and Maro Itoje was back to his wild, irrepressible old self, wreaking havoc at the maul and breakdown. Tom Curry made 16 tackles and seemed to spend every other minute of the game on his knees, and bleeding, while Ben Earl came off the back of the scrums like he was one of the 600 charging the guns at Balaclava. It was noticeable, too, that when England finally conceded a try, Earl was the one doing all the talking in the huddle under the posts.

Borthwick has built the rump of his new England team these last few weeks. Earl and Martin will both be at the heart of it. Among the backs, older hands were at work, Owen Farrell, barking out instructions at everyone within earshot, including – when will he ever learn? – O’Keeffe. Manu Tuilagi laughed at Jesse Kriel as he tried to pick a fight with him and, over and over and over again, Jonny May and Elliot Daly and Freddie Steward rose up high up into the raindrops to contest the falling ball off Alex Mitchell’s box kicks.

Did we imagine it, or was there really a moment when South Africa called a 10-man lineout in England’s 22, and England still managed to push them backwards? Was it a hallucination, or did England really call a play which ricocheted one of their own throws back to Jamie George so he could chase his own grubber kick down along the wing?

Related: Tenacious, cunning and courageous, but England were just outgrappled | Andy Bull

All that will fade away and what will be best remembered, in the end, was South Africa’s desperation. It seemed to infect every single one of the thousands of supporters they had brought with them. They were so intense at times that the English in the crowd, who surely outnumbered them, were completely drowned out. I have a distinct image of one South African hanging over the gantry on the third storey and smashing his hand on the hoardings so loudly that we ducked because we thought his thumps might be gunshots.

England kicked away 93% of their possession and their tactics turned the match into an exercise in problem-solving, the Stade de France into a puzzle room. The Springboks had 80 minutes to find their way out, and did, in the end, thanks in large part to the smarts of their coaches, Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber. They were brave enough to change the entire spine of the team, the half-backs, Manie Libbok and Cobus Reinach, and the full-back, Damian Willemse, and substitute their two leaders, Eben Etzebeth and Siya Kolisi, all inside 50 minutes. They recognised the game was getting away from them, that they didn’t have time to waste.

In the end, they deserved their victory. The consolation for England is that their mistakes were honest, and there isn’t anyone among them who will look back on the match in regret that they didn’t give their best.