England vs the Fijian Squad – Fall International Rugby Overview
Game Coverage
Preamble
Similar to the silver birches around my home during this season, England in the autumn are a mixed offering. Their appeal stems from transformations and natural progress, prior to the unavoidable decline that leaves chaos in its wake demanding extensive tidying efforts while feeling irritable. Plus, the rain has begun to fall.
England's coach Steve Borthwick aims to transform this scenario and it’s started OK for him. The opening win over Australia in this year’s November is already better than 2024, which included three poor losses and only a basic victory over Japan serving as the conclusion in the last week. There was extensive talk following the series downturn regarding how the initial matches against New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa made the schedule overly challenging, and a trend of unhappiness trailed each match result. For 2025, insights have been gained, with the success against the Wallabies leading into the current match with Fiji as a chance to consolidate the positive vibes.
The English squad shows many changes compared to last week's selection, which given the class sprinkled throughout the Fiji squad could be be seen as hubris from Borthwick. But, while the islanders are no mugs by any measure, they have historically faced challenges in this matchup. A win in the 2023 World Cup warm up games their solitary victory in nine tests vs today’s opposition.
England are also arguably the best team in the world at despatching teams they should not struggle against; they remain the only side undefeated by Italy in the Six Nations for example, and rarely lose to tier two opponents.
