England and Worcester wing Nicola Crawford said: “I am happy with my performance. It was good to get some ball in the first-half and be able to do some supporting lines to help score some tries. The forwards had a really good game, building a solid platform which makes it a lot easier for the backs to put some passes together.

“We really wanted to keep working at the game for the 80 minutes because we know that all the other games we have got in front of us are going to be tough ones that require a full 80 minutes of effort. Everyone knows that in the final few minutes that is where a game can be won and lost and we don’t want to be losing.

“The squad rotation just shows what strength in depth we have. On the bench every player is a talented player and it is just fantastic that we are in this situation.

“Next up we face France on Friday and that is going to be a huge game. That is the crunch game for us. The result will decide whether we go ahead to the semi-finals. France will certainly be trying their absolute hardest to beat us and vice-versa and I just know it is going to be a brilliant match.”

England and Saracens forward Maggie Alphonsi said: “This was a brilliant win. Following on from the first game against the US we have certainly put right everything that went wrong last week. This was a much more intense performance from us. There were lots of brilliant tries which weren’t soft, easy scores. They all came from good team work.

“It was great to see Sue Day and Nicky Crawford racking up the tries and Rachel Burford also grabbing a capped try. We are now all looking forward to playing against France to give it our all and try and get into the semi-finals.  This win against the South Africans has given us a lot of confidence because they were no easy team to beat. They pushed us for the full 80 minutes and that’s what we needed to get us ready for our next challenge.”

England and Henley centre Rachel Burford: “With this being my first cap I was quite nervous before kick-off and I tried to not let myself get too excited. The nerves started to go away when I got into the game and got used to the pace of the match.

“It was great to score a try on my debut. It was an awesome feeling and it certainly makes me desperately want to be involved in the game against France. To be honest I didn’t want today’s game to finish!”

England captain and Worcester player Jo Yapp, who started the game from the bench, said: “At the beginning of the game I was desperately trying to stay relaxed. The key thing for me was to not get too hyped too soon, but then I suddenly was on the pitch as a blood replacement for Amy Turner. It was all a bit of a shock. When I got back on the bench it was good to sit back and actually watch the game but it was still very frustrating because everything seems easy when you’re not actually playing.

“Our performance got better and better as the match went on. Admittedly we made a bit of a slow start again, maybe because of the heat or maybe because we were trying too hard. There were points on the board early on, but South Africa did put us under an awful lot of pressure. That made us go back to basics and playing rugby in their half and the game started to get better and better for us.

“Overall I was very pleased, especially with Rachel Burford getting a first cap and also because Sue Day did a great job as captain. This win sets us up well for the game against France. We have had a tough match against the USA, and South Africa weren’t easy either but we are building upon every game and when the French game comes around we will be confident, but we also know that it’s going to be one hell of a match on our hands.”

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