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Shortly after their thrashing at the hands of the Springboks, the English rugby team received another beating on Saturday - from the British media.
Current title-holders England turned in their worst performance in World Cup history and must win their remaining two pool games against Samoa and Tonga if they are to have a chance of progressing into the knockout stages of the tournament.
Although England were crippled by injury and suspension, British news websites were merciless, pulling no punches in describing their team's 0-36 loss to South Africa in Paris.
Under the headline "Lamentable England's title defence in tatters" the Telegraph's Mick Cleary said England's performance mocked their status as world champions.
"No pace, no threat and no hope. It was a humiliating experience for those on the field and a deadening one for the many thousands of England fans who had made the trip," he said.
"England have gone backwards in this tournament, a baffling and shameful state of affairs."
"The chariot is destined for the scrapyard," he added.
The TimesOnline's Owen Slot questioned whether England would make it past Samoa, who many are tipping to knock the reigning world champions out of the event.
"This England side are rattling up a sequence of humiliations, but failing to qualify from the pool would be the absolute ultimate," he wrote.
"The problem is that England have talked and talked about their pride and how they would respond, how it would inspire them& Maybe this big performance simply is not there. That is what the evidence suggests: this is not a big-performance side."
However, the most scathing criticism came from Guardian blogger Andy Bull, who was almost lost for words.
"If I didn't have to spend the 30 minutes writing about it, I'd just tell you that England were indescribably awful and stop there," he said.
"The horrendousness of that performance has left me dumbfounded. It was a sick dream, a joke, a nonsense, and it will haunt every one of those players for the rest of their careers."
- NZ HERALD STAFF
