England's autumn is beginning to look as bleak as the Twickenham weather after Willem Alberts' fortunate try earned South Africa a 16-15 victory.
Stuart Lancaster's men now head into next weekend's appointment with world champions New Zealand on the back of narrow defeats at home to Australia and the Springboks.
England competed every step of the way with South Africa, matching the Springboks for intensity and desire as they battled back from 16-6 down with real heart.
They were the better team, particularly in the second half when Owen Farrell came on, but their undoing was a slice of bad luck just after the interval.
When Ben Youngs' hacked clearance rebounded off JP Pietersen, the ball fell to Alberts, who scored rugby's equivalent of an open goal.
Farrell added three penalties to the two struck by Toby Flood as England battled all the way to the death. Lancaster will at least be encouraged by those qualities.
England captain Chris Robshaw said: "I thought we could take the three points, get down field for a drop goal. But unfortunately it was not to be."
Ireland scored seven tries in a 46-24 demolition of Argentina to ensure they will be seeded when the draw is made for the next World Cup and leave the South Americans waiting to find out if they will join them.
Ireland had to win the match, billed as the most important one either side would likely play this side of the 2015 tournament, to book a place in the second tier of seeds for the December 3 draw, and four tries in a blistering first half got them on their way. Debutant wing Craig Gilroy got his first try, as did Simon Zebo and Richardt Strauss, while Jonathan Sexton and Tommy Bowe got a brace each to maintain Ireland's unbeaten home record against Argentina.
In Florence, Australia survived a second-half fightback to maintain their perfect record against Italy, winning 22-19.
The Wallabies had looked to be coasting after Nick Cummins' second try in as many weeks helped them into a 22-3 half-time lead. But Robbie Deans' men ground to a halt as the Azzurri pushed for their first win over Australia.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article