England Captain Chris Robshaw remained positive after his team lost 22-17 to South Africa's Springboks in the first of three Tests.

England played most of the rugby in the first half but could not pull away from the Springboks and the sides led 6-all at half time.

The Springboks took a step up in the second half and in a 20 minute patch pulled away from England who then had to fight their way back into the match.

"We went in 6-6 at half-time, we came out all guns blazing but unfortunately they got an early score and managed to build pressure on us," Robshaw told Sky.

"South African sides, you always know they're going to be very physical but if you looking at the game we were never more than a score away, but unfortunately we were the wrong side of that score.

"We have to start building for next week, there's been a lot of positives and a couple negatives you can pick out today."

England were trailing by 10 points as the siren sounded but they soldiered on and winger Ben Foden scored an extra time try in the corner to give England hope for next week's Test in Johannesburg.

"In this three-match series of course we would have liked to have won the first match but it's onwards and upwards now and there's a lot of hard work to do."

"It's all about the result at the end of the day but the last 10-15 minutes we showed we can put our game on the pitch and move them around."

"We did that throughout the majority of the first half but we've got to start to do it for the full 80 minutes."