Matt Dawson Former England scrum-half and BBC Five Live summariser

It was a pretty dismal day for England in Bloemfontein.

We were 6,000 feet above sea level and at the end of a heavy season for England, it was always going to be tough, especially in those last 15 minutes.

Mathew Tait's display was one of the few positives for England

If the game is tight, or at least tighter than it was, you can summon up the energy from within yourself and possibly make it closer on the scoreboard late on.

But for two or three minutes South Africa just blitzed England.

England gave possession away, and you could literally just see the air and the energy filter away to nothing.

They were walking around the field by the end and a couple of players were actually ill on the field.

Brian Ashton said afterwards that he couldn't replace some of the players who were physically ill because he had used all his replacements already. It was that type of day.

606: DEBATE Give your thoughts on England's performances

But there were a couple of bright spots despite the record defeat to the Springboks.

For me, Mathew Tait had an outstanding game for the amount of possession he got, and still managed to create some space for himself and others.

I thought Toby Flood also complemented Jonny Wilkinson extremely well with his kicking game and he will take an awful lot out of that game.

I think South Africa are only team that could beat New Zealand at the World Cup

Up front it was a tough ask with what had gone on in the week leading up to the game with injuries and illness.

But I thought Nick Easter did OK at number eight and the old stager Mark Regan stepped in superbly well at hooker.

He gave England a bit of bite with a nuggety performance that probably got under the Springboks' skin.

England are going to need a lot more of that if they are going to get nearer than the 48-point deficit they suffered on Saturday.

I would say South Africa are only team at the moment that could beat New Zealand, physically and mentally, in the pressure environment of the World Cup.

They have players to come back into the team and they were just so dangerous when they needed to be against England, able to put their foot on the gas when they wanted.

I spoke to their captain John Smit before the game and they were looking forward to these Tests and the Tri-Nations to put down a marker for the World Cup.

Matt Dawson was speaking on BBC Radio Five Live