England head coach Eddie Jones paid tribute to his side for winning their “arm wrestle” with South Africa after a narrow 12-11 win at Twickenham on Saturday.
Three penalties from Owen Farrell and one via Elliot Daly was enough to seal victory for an inexperienced England side.
However, Jones could not contain his pride after they secured victory at Twickenham Stadium.
“It was a tough old game of rugby, it’s South Africa v England so what would you expect,” Jones told England Rugby.
“It went down to the wire. We played some of the big moments well which allowed us to win the game and I’m super proud of our boys. We’ve had three training runs and to put together a cohesive performance like that, particularly defensively, is absolutely first class.”
Jones added of his young squad which included uncapped duo Ben Moon and Zach Mercer: “All the credit belongs to the players, especially the leadership group.
“We had a team today of under 450 caps, to win a World Cup you need 800 or 900 caps, so we had a lot of guys who are new to Test rugby,” he added.
“The way they stuck in the fight was superb. When you get in those arm wrestles, someone is going to give and we didn’t give. We hung in there long enough and when young guys do that it’s a really good sign of their future at Test match level.”
The game hinged on a late tackle from Farrell, but after consultation it was deemed legal and Jones admitted to a sense of relief.
“I just thought, please don’t penalise us,” said Jones.
“It was a good solid tackle. We’ve had three training runs and they’ve been together for three months so to put in a performance like that, the players deserve enormous credit.”
Next up are world champions New Zealand and Jones was in bullish form: “We’ve got New Zealand next week and we can’t wait. They’ll be confident and we can’t wait to get them.”