England's 'absolute Achilles' heel' identified by centurion

Harlequins’ legend Danny Care admits that England’s yellow card peril is tying one hand behind their and they need to sort it out quickly if they want to return to winning ways.

England boss Steve Borthwick saw his side finish with 13 men after Tommy Freeman and Guy Pepper were bin-binned to take the number of yellow cards to 10 this year in their 45-21 defeat to the Springboks at Ellis Park.

And former scrum-half Care, who won 101 caps for the Red Rose, told ITV Sport that discipline is an area of their game that they need to quickly get a grip of because there was a game to be won at half-time when they were only 17-14 down.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a step backwards, but it’s not a step in the direction I think that a lot of England fans want. It’s definitely not a step that the players want. There was a test match that was there to be won at half time.

“They had all the momentum. They had wrestled it back. South Africa’s fast start was incredible, but they got them and found themselves back in the game. They’ve got great field position, got some tries at half time.

But the same thing happened at the start of the game, happened at the start of the second half. South Africa too strong, too powerful out of the traps. But England’s discipline again is an absolute Achilles’ heel.

“That’s over 100 minutes of play now in six matches that England haven’t had 15 men on the field. You cannot expect to win Test matches against the big teams like that.

“They’ve conceded 95 points in that 100 minutes. So over a full Test match, they’re playing with an arm behind their back. They really are. And England have to rectify that, and they have to do it very quickly

“Because, against the same like South Africa at Ellis Park, simply won’t win, and that’s what we saw in the second half. The penalty count was two for South Africa, nine for England in a Test match that was there to be won with three points in it.

“That, for me, is a difference at the moment between the first best team in the world and the sixth best team in the world. England have got a lot to do, but they’ve got to sort out their discipline. They’ve got to do it quickly,” he said.