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Cape Town - South Africa will host England in a three-Test series in 2012 as part of a new International Rugby Board (IRB) directive to introduce longer end-of-season tours in the southern hemisphere.
The two countries first met in 1906 when they ground out a 3-3 stalemate at Crystal Palace in London with England visiting South Africa four times since to play two-test tours in 1984, 1994, 2000 and 2007.
"Everyone in rugby has been yearning for a return to old-style tours and the IRB has now been able to deliver," South African Rugby Union (SARU) president Oregan Hoskins said in a statement on Wednesday.
"We experience the drama that a proper tour delivers every time the British and Irish Lions appear and both the tourists and the host nations in the southern hemisphere were keen to see this change."
Apart from the Lions in 1997 and 2009, England's tour will be the first extended visit by a single nation since New Zealand won a three-match series in South Africa in 1996.
The IRB added that Ireland (2016) and France (2017) would embark on similar tours to South Africa before England returned for a second full series in 2018.
