Cape Town - Springbok wing S'bu Nkosi, who scored a brace of tries on debut on Saturday, says he always knew the Boks would beat England at Ellis Park. 

After a horror start, South Africa found themselves 24-3 down inside the first quarter of the match and it took a monumental comeback to secure a 42-39 victory as the Rassie Erasmus era got off the ground. 

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After 20 minutes, it looked like South Africa were dead and buried already. 

But, speaking after the match, Nkosi said that there was never any doubt that the Boks had the ability to bounce back. 

"We always knew we were going to win," the 22-year-old said confidently. 

"They presented a different challenge and it just needed us to adapt and we did adapt accordingly and gained dominance as the game went on."

On scoring on debut, Nkosi lauded his team-mates.

"It's a huge honour to score on my debut. I'll credit it to the service that we got from the inside backs and we blended well as a back three," he said.

"I wasn't nervous in the beginning and obviously the team didn't start on the front foot.

"The older guys did well to bring us into a circle and tell us to calm down ... the little amount of nerves I did have were diminished very quickly by the older guys."

Nkosi is expected to keep his place on the right wing for this Saturday's second Test against England in Bloemfontein.