Rugby Union: Eddie Jones admits second England defeat was ‘like watching a horror movie’

Eddie Jones admitted “it was like watching a horror movie” as England slipped to a sixth consecutive defeat in a 23-12 loss to the Springboks on Saturday, ending their chances of winning a first series in South Africa.

In similar circumstances to the first Test that England lost 42-39, Jones’ side shot out of the blocks with two early tries from Mike Brown and Jonny May, but South Africa clawed their way back into the match and led 13-12 by half-time thanks to a Duane Vermeulen converted try and two Handre Pollard penalties.

READ MORE: Same old problems for England as they lose to South Africa

They stretched that lead in the second half with a penalty try from a collapsed scrum, with Pollard adding a third penalty, and England failed to trouble to scoreboard as the went over 65 minutes without scoring a point.

The loss leaves England unable to overturn the best-of-three series, and coupled with Billy Vunipola suffering yet another injury, things could not have gone much worse for Jones.

Ben Youngs, the England scrum-half, was also involved in a heavily-criticised interview after the match in which he gave a short six-second answer to Sky Sports presenter Gail Davis before storming off – something he later apologised for.

"Obviously it’s very disappointing," Jones said. "We started the game very well but it was a bit like a horror movie, wasn’t it? It was almost a re-run of last week.

"We made errors in different areas of the game today. We are trying to work out why we did that. Our plan of how we wanted to play the game going into it was pretty clear.

"But as soon as something small happens, we just don’t seem to react to it on the field at the moment. I thought the game was a good, hard tough test match."

The defeat means that England have now lost their last five Test matches that stretches back to the middle of the Six Nations, and six games in total when the defeat by the Barbarians last month is taken into account.

England do at least have one more chance to halt that unwanted run next weekend when they face the Springboks in the final third Test in Cape Town, but rather than demand more from his players, Jones believes that they may already be trying too hard.

"It is a tough period at the moment, no-one likes to lose five test matches in a row,” he added. “We have been through an exceptional period and now we are going through a tough period.

England's poor discipline cost them any chance of victory (Getty)

"The players and coaches are putting in plenty of effort, but for some reason we are just not handling those tough moments in the game well.

"I think it (conceding penalties) is because players are trying too hard. In situations they are trying to solve problems themselves rather than trusting team mates and the system.

"An England side is always under pressure, whether you are winning or losing. Are the players feeling it more now? That is a possibility."