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TRY! England 14 - 13 Fiji (Immanuel Feyi-Waboso)
38 mins. A cross-kick finds the Exeter winger out wide to run in the gap vacated by Ravutaumada to score.
Conversion added.
YELLOW CARD! Selestino Ravutaumada (Fiji)
36 mins. Fiji mangle their lineout deep in their own half, but Kurivoli tidies it up and fires an offload to Mata to races out of the 22 and puts the visitors back on the attack. England regroup and force Kurivoli to box kick clear.
Ravutaumada chases it and clobbers Feyi-Waboso in the air, spinning the winger like a catherine wheel! Amazingly, Feyi-Waboso is up immediately and off running with the ball, but the ref blows up and immediately brandishes a yellow card to be reviewed for a red. I doubt he’ll be returning.
34 mins. Another pattern in the backs moves England left to Marcus Smith joining from fullback to angle a grubber into the corner. Freeman is after it but Rayasi covers across and shepherds it into touch.
32 mins. There’s a break in play while Elia Canakaivata gets some treatment on his knee. When we restart it will be an England scrum on the Fijian 10m line.
The tannoy is playing Sweet Caroline. Please make it stop.
31 mins. England have some ball for the first time in a while, with Lawrence taking a run up the left before offloading to Feyi-Waboso who can’t gather it and loses it forward. The resulting scrum is won by Fiji before Kurivoli boots it high and clear.
PENALTY! England 7 - 13 Fiji (Caleb Muntz)
28 mins. More possession for the visitors forces more indiscipline from England, and Muntz extends the lead from the tee.
TRY! England 7 - 10 Fiji (Caleb Muntz)
22 mins. Muntz floats a long pass to Ravutaumada on the left wing, who stands up Freeman and pop a pass inside to Kurivoli to chip over Marcus Smith’s head. The fullback takes Kurivoli out as he chases through, but no matter as Muntz follows up to grab the ball and score.
Conversion is missed.
20 mins. Ravouvou has a strong run on the right which starts England scrambling on halfway. The ball is moved left quickly but Pepper reads a pass well and clatters Sowakula to ping the ball loose, which the ref calls as a knock-on in the tackle by the young back rower.
18 mins. It’s noticeable that Marcus Smith is regularly stepping into the attacking line from fullback, acting as a spare pivot. His latest visit has him angling a grubber to touch deep in opposition territory that forces Fiji to exit from a lineout.
16 mins. The attacks from England a busy with offloads and support runners, and they are making metres. The latest effort is stopped by Tuisova getting over the ball and winning a turnover.
14 mins. More precise midfield patterns of attack running have England near the 22, with Lawrence tickling a grubber kick through. Muntz covers it but can only run into touch as the English chasers envelop him. From the lineout the attack is stymied by a knock-on.
12 mins. A sensible restart return exit drill from Fiji has Muntz booting a long touchfinder. England will have possession around halfway.
TRY! England 7 - 5 Fiji (Tevita Ikanivere)
10 mins. A classing catch and drive from the Fiji lineout allows Ikanivere to break off and crash over. A fantastic counter punch from the visitors.
Muntz misses the conversion.
8 mins. Fiji get some ball and start the passing and offloading as you would expect. However, the difference with Muntz at 10 is that when it’s going nowhere he calls for it and gives it some air, which he duly does and Feyi-Waboso is penalised for blocking the chasing Ravutaumada.
TRY! England 7 - 0 Fiji (Luke Cowan-Dickie)
6 mins. Fiji exit with little fuss, but Muntz’s kick to touch simply invites another attack from and English lineout. A nice pattern is run in midfield that nearly puts Freeman into space, and a few phases later Cowan-Dickie powers over from short.
Smith converts.
3 mins. The catch and drive is executed by England, but the Fiji forwards do a great job of holding it still and they tying the ball up to win a turnover when it refuses to emerge from the melee.
2 mins. England are straight on the attack on the Fiji 10m line and some clever running in midfield forces a tackle off the ball from the defence. Fin Smith sends it to touch in the 22.
Kick Off!
Fin Smith starts us off by clipping the ball deep into Fiji territory
The anthems have been belted out and now Fiji form up to perform the cibi, their pre-match challenge. England line up to receive it in the usual way.
The lights are dimmed, the EDM is being pumped through the tannoy and the flames are firing at pitchside. This is the scene the welcomes the teams to field.
Have a read while you wait.
Get in touch with me on the email if you want to let me have any of your opinions, views, praise, vitriol or whatever you fancy.
Teams
England:
Marcus Smith; Tommy Freeman, Ollie Lawrence, Fraser Dingwall, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso; Fin Smith, Alex Mitchell; Ellis Genge, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Joe Heyes; Alex Coles, Ollie Chessum; Guy Pepper, Ben Earl, Chandler Cunningham-South.
Replacements: Jamie George, Fin Baxter, Asher Opoku-Fordjour, Maro Itoje, Tom Curry, Henry Pollock, Ben Spencer, Henry Arundell.
Fiji:
Salesi Rayasi; Selestino Ravutaumada, Kalaveti Ravouvou, Josua Tuisova, Jiuta Wainiqolo; Caleb Muntz, Simione Kuruvoli; Eroni Mawi, Tevita Ikanivere, Mesake Doge; Isoa Nasilasila, Temo Mayanavanua; Pita-Gus Sowakula, Elia Canakaivata, Viliame Mata.
Replacements: Zuriel Togiatama, Haereti Hetet, Samuela Tawake, Mesake Vocevoce, Motikai Murray, Sam Wye, Isaiah Armstrong-Ravula, Sireli Maqala.
Preamble
Like the silver birches near my house at this time of year, England in the autumn are a mixed offering. How lovely they can look due to the changes and natural developments, before the inevitable atrophying dumps of loads of mess all over the place that you must spend weeks clearing up in a foul mood. And it’s started raining.
Steve Borthwick will powerfully wish to change this picture and it’s started OK for him. The opening win over Australia in this year’s November is already better than 2024, when three miserable losses were punctuated by a bog-standard win over Japan as the full stop in the final week. Much was made amidst the post-series malaise that the opening trio of NZ, Australia and Boks meant the fixtures were front loaded to a fault, with a momentum of misery accompanying each week’s result. In 2025 lessons have been learned, with the win over the Wallabies followed with today’s outing against Fiji as a chance to consolidate the positive vibes.
It’s a much changed England team from last week, 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 are perennial strugglers in this fixture. 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.
