England fly-half George Ford refused to lay the blame for Saturday's World Cup Final loss at the door of the team's forward pack.
Eddie Jones's men were comprehensively beaten by South Africa in a repeat of the 2007 showpiece in Yokohama, going down 32-12 thanks to 22 points from the boot of Handre Pollard and late tries from wings Makazole Mapimpi and Cheslin Kolbe.
England's malfunctioning set-piece was crucial to the defeat, with the Springboks applying serious pressure in a key area, racking up the penalties and denying their opponents first-phase ball.
"You always want to get on the front foot but I can't fault the lads up front, they've been unbelievable all tournament," a dejected Ford told ITV afterwards.
"South Africa just got one over on us today and we have to take it on the chin.
"It's tough when they get a bit of a lead like that, you're having to chase the game. They executed their game plan brilliantly.
"We were massively inaccurate in the first half when we had the ball. We couldn't build any pressure. South Africa got us into that game which they're very good at. "
