ENGLAND concluded their autumn series with another painful defeat as South Africa registered their first victory at Twickenham since 1997. England made an impressive start with a controversial try from Mark Cueto and the boot of Andy Goode putting them in a commanding position. But the injustice of Cueto's score . . .

he clearly dropped the ball over the line . . . stung South Africa into action with prop CJ van der Linde crashing over.

The Springboks, who had left all the senior players at home, then controlled the second half with Andre Pretorius hitting three drop goals to complete the victory.

Courage alone saw the world champions edge the Springboks 23-21 last Saturday but other than the spirit on show it was a desperate performance. With the sevenmatch losing run over, England ran out at Twickenham needing to produce evidence they could mount a credible World Cup defence.

Individually there was also much at stake with head coach Andy Robinson possibly overseeing his last match in charge amid the clamour for his removal, while Martin Corry needed to silence criticism of his captaincy. Robinson made four changes with Andy Goode making only his third Test start at out-half in place of Charlie Hodgson, who sustained a season-ending knee injury last week.

Phil Vickery, who like Goode proved instrumental in pegging back South Africa's 18-6 lead last Saturday, came in for broken ankle victim Andrew Sheridan. The two other changes were also in the pack with hooker Lee Mears replacing George Chuter and Chris Jones taking over from Ben Kay in the second row.

Goode got England off to a poor start by sending a clearance down the throat of Francois Steyn who attempted a drop goal which fell well short off the uprights. England strung some phases together in the fifth minute with Mark Cueto nearly escaping down the right and when South Africa were penalised for coming in from the side, Goode kicked the three points.

South Africa were being hindered by indiscipline which saw them concede four penalties in the first 10 minutes and Goode nailed the fifth following a fine break from Peter Richards. Sloppy handling was also proving costly as the Springboks repeatedly dropped the ball or missed their passes with one dashing run from Wynand Olivier ended in this way. Pretorius fired a drop goal to reduce the deficit but a long-range penalty from Goode restored the six-point advantage.

Controversy reigned on the half-hour mark when England did score a try, although replays showed Cueto had dropped the ball over the line.

Goode teed up the try with a perfect hanging kick which almost saw Tait cross after coming up with the ball but when it was recycled Cueto grabbed and dived over, spilling slightly as he went.

But South Africa, who were starting to pick up momentum, were keeping the scoreboard ticking over with two penalties from Pretorius slashing the deficit to 14-9.

They were held up over the line with a minute of the first half remaining when Tait, Goode and Vickery smothered de Villiers, but the Springboks could not be denied in first-half injury-time when prop CJ van der Linde collected a floated mis-pass from Pretorius and brushed off tackles from Josh Lewsey and Jamie Noon before barging over. Pretorius' conversion gave South Africa the lead for the first time.

South Africa opened the second half with Steyn easily wrong-footing Cohen and then sending de Villiers on a bulldozing run that carried the towering Stormers hooker 30 yards. Tait lost the ball in the tackle and the Springboks pounced, working their way downfield and threatening through a beautiful piece of skill from Juan Smith. The ball was fed to Pretorius and he made no mistake with the drop goal that extended South Africa's lead to 19-14.

Robinson responded by making a triple substitution in the 49th minute with Shaun Perry, Ben Kay and Lewis Moody coming on, but England remained under pressure, Akona Akona Ndungane knocking on after a crossfield kick from Olivier, letting the home side off the hook.

When a scrum was collapsed near the halfway line Goode pointed to the posts.

The Leicester out-half 's kick bounced off the left post and fell off target. Goode then kicked another bomb to the right wing with four England players chasing and Cueto outjumped everyone to collect the ball in spectacular fashion . . . only to then drop it as he fell to the floor.

England pounded away in the left corner following a huge touch-finder from Goode but could not break through and when the ball was released the out-half missed a drop goal. Pretorius nailed his effort with five minutes to go, however, and then fired his fourth drop goal to leave England dead and buried.

ENGLAND Lewsey; Cueto, Tait, Noon, Cohen;

Goode, Richards; Vickery, Mears, White, Palmer, Jones, Worsley, Sanderson, Corry.

Subs Chuter, Payne, Kay, Moody, Perry, Flood, Van Gisbergen.

SOUTH AFRICA Steyn; Ndungane, Olivier, De Villiers, Habana; Pretorius, Januarie; Van der Linde, Smit (capt), Botha, Ackermann, Muller, Floors, Smith, Rossouw. Subs Ralepelle, Carstens, Van den Berg, Britz, Pienaar, J Pretorius, Fortuin.

Referee Alan Lewis