England beat South Africa for the first time in 10 years, as Eddie Jones' men opened their Autumn Internationals account with a comfortable 37-21 win over of The Springboks at Twickenham.

Tries from Jonny May, Courtney Lawes, George Ford and Owen Farrell led The Red Rose to a dominant win over their Southern Hemisphere rivals, despite a nervy start.

Slippery start in West-London

Having not beaten The Springboks in 10 years, England were keen to draw a firm line under that statistic, whereas coach Eddie Jones sought to make it ten out of ten wins since starting out for The Red Rose.

In slippery conditions in West-London, The hosts began sloppily and conceded early penalties, with South Africa's Patrick Lambie drawing first blood with a kick and a drop-goal to ease the visitors out to a surprise 6-0 lead.

With ten minutes on the clock, England suddenly exploded into life. From a line-out, Billy Vunipola offloaded and following a decoy run by debutant Elliot Daly, Mike Brown found the scurrying Jonny May on the left, who raced over to open the host's account and his first on returning from injury.

As Owen Farrell converted to give England the lead, the psychological advantage did nothing to curb their indiscipline, with a football that was playing like a bar of soap. From another penalty concession, the South Africans nosed ahead by two points.

The scrappy narrative of the game was broken up by a head injury to Springbok lock Eben Etzebeth. On resumption, Farrell kicked his first penalty of the contest.

Then, after South African play broke down, Ben Youngs lofted a hopeful kick forward, as winger May chased down the scuttling ball.

On the wet Twickenham surface the football was knocked toward the South African line and when Lambie - not Mike Brown - knocked-on, Courtney Lawes, on his 50th cap, dove over to touch the ball down.

Seconds before the break, Daly stepped up in the place of Farrell to kick from long-range, as England led 20-9 at half-time.

Jones' men assert dominance

Having overcome a testing first period, England finally began to find both their footing and handling and scored just three minutes on resumption. From a scrum, the lively Youngs sold Pieter-Steph du-Toit an elegant dummy, as George Ford raced over to score the host's third try.

The absence of Etzebeth had left South Africa horribly exposed, as Farrell extended the host's lead to 21 points from another penalty.

In the midst of a host of changes by both sides, substitute Johan Goosen reduced the deficit to 30-14 via a disputed forward-pass try for Allister Coetzee's men. After the rarity of a Farrell missed shy for the posts, South Africa were still competitive still with a quarter of the game to go, despite the 16-point difference.

Farrell however was not to denied for too much longer, as Youngs magic again set up the Saracens fly-half score just right of the posts, as England began to put the vistors to the sword.

The hosts fatigue and lack of game-time set in late on as Willie le Roux scored a late second try for South Africa, but in truth the game was already won, as England finally topple the South Africans, winning 37-21.