England 12 South Africa 32: World Cup final heartache for Red Rose after being bullied by super Springboks

ENGLAND were kicked to death in a World Cup final catastrophe.

In a horrific performance littered by errors and a shoddy scrum, Eddie Jones' side were out-muscled by the giant South Africans who went on to lift their third crown.

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Fly-half Handre Pollard kicked 22 points on a miserable night at Yokohama International Stadium - with wingers Makazole Mapimpi and pocket-rocket Cheslin Kolbe grabbing second-half tries.

It was a record equalling fourth final for the England - but also a landmark defeat too, as they became the second country to lose three finals along with France.

There was no revenge for 2007, when the Boks bashed up England in France to lift the Webb Ellis Cup 12-years ago.

Instead, just more hurt and frustration.

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So Siya Kolisi, South Africa's first black Test captain will go one step closer to uniting the nation.

There will likely be the bottle-job jibes to follow, too.

Perhaps Warren Gatland was right, too, and they did play their final in the superb semi win against New Zealand.

It was clearly never meant to be though.

England were 25 minutes late getting to the ground as their coach was held up by heavy traffic from Tokyo - despite having police outriders on motorbikes.

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They were then smashed in the scrum and lost their anchor Kyle Sinckler after less than three minutes.

Sinckler bumped-off Makazole Mapimpi in the tackle and immediately looked in trouble as he hit the deck.

Sparked out on the turf - his World Cup final was over in a flash as replays showed he was accidentally caught by teammate Maro Itoje before going down cold.

Things just weren't going right for edgy England all over the park in an unusually nervy start.

And when Farrell was pinged for holding onto the ball after the tackle Boks kicking-machine Handre Pollard slotted the easiest of three-pointers in front of the posts.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, went England's way.

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From scrum-half Ben Youngs throwing a pass into touch and then Itoje being denied a clear penalty when he jackaled Eben Etzebeth - French ref Jerome Garces wasn't helping either.

It took 20 minutes for England to creep into the Boks 22 and Farrell to kick his first penalty to draw level at 3-3.

England's scrum was rocky, though, and when sub Dan Cole popped up under pressure from the Springboks front-row Pollard was handed another three to kick - and did.

The Springboks' 117-capped propzilla Tendai Mtawarira, known as The Beast - absolutely monstered Cole on a nightmare night.

So when England got the chance to camp deep in the Boks danger zone they had to make it count.

In another visit to the Boks 22 they did at least come away with another Farrell penalty, after endless carrying from Mako and Billy Vunipola trying to smash through the green wall of defence.

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England's discipline was as worrying and Pollard smashed another long-range effort over after Big Billy V was caught offside before adding his fourth of the half thanks to another scrum.

At 12-6 down at the break - the damage to claw back wasn't devastating, but it felt that bad watching.

The scrum pens kept coming and you can see why their bench are called the Bomb Squad.

Even when The Beast and Frans Malherbe were replaced by Steven Kitshoff and Vincent Koch they immediately won another penalty that Pollard kicked from range to make it 15-6.

However, with Joe Marler on the pitch angry England finally got their own back.

Marler and co hit the Boks where they didn't like it and finally took apart their scrum, driving them some 15 metres before winning the penalty that Farrell slotted to close the gap to six points.

Then world-player-of-the-year nominee Tom Curry proved his worth Ito this side who refused to go down without an almighty scrap.

Curry, just 21, won a penalty as he wrapped Pollard up with the ball and the kicking battle continues as Farrell went again, but missed.

The 28-year-old skipper managed to nail another, though, but that was after Pollard had stretched the lead further at 12-18.

When the Boks finally got running, they also did the damage too.

Winger Mapimpi got on the end of a net move in the wide channel as he chased his chip over the top and centre Lukhanyo Am fed him in.

Pollard. . . well, of course he kicked it.

And when Kolbe was given space the 5ft 6ins star with petrol in his feet ate up the ground to run in from 20 metres out to complete the ultimate embarrassment.