By james art The Lionesses controlled the tempo as Leah Williamson scored her 50th cap with the opener before Maya Le Tissier picked out Manchester United team-mate Grace Clinton to give England a 2-0 lead at the interval.
But they were far from perfect in the second period as South Africa got one back thanks to Thembi Kgatlana’s pinpoint finish beyond Mary Earps.
Kgatlana caused trouble throughout and thought he had leveled when he struck into the top corner, but an offside flag saved England’s blushes as they bounced back to victory in unconvincing fashion after Friday’s chaotic loss to Germany.
Wiegmann thought her side were far from their best after the half-time break.
She said: “We were careless at times.
“These moments were not good for us, so we were careless and they made it 2-1. Also, we had players in different positions and it’s not easy to adapt them and get the right connections.
“We have to get through it and remove the sloppiness and continue to play forward and link up with players in different positions, so I am asking a lot of players.
“What you saw today were different players than on Friday and other players in other positions that we wanted to see. This is the time to do it. Some things I was happy, and other moments, of course, we can improve.
“We all know we don’t want to make those mistakes – they punished us and of course we want to get those moments and if we want to be at our best we have to get them.”
Wiegmann’s side will play two more friendlies during the next international break against the United States and Switzerland as they continue their preparations for next summer’s European Championship.
The England boss admits he still has questions to answer after losing and winning this international camp.
Wigman added: “We still have more questions, that’s what we said before we started this camp.
“We won’t need that now, we have two more games and we’re trying to get as much information as possible.
“Obviously, to see more players knocking on the door, some have to be a bit more patient than others, but we need these games to test those things so we can be in a better place later .
“You want to have opponents in front of you that give you different challenges.
“These challenges give us the experience we can learn from, so we are happy with these high-level games and different opponents from different continents.”