The English Team versus the Fijian Squad – Fall International Rugby Overview

Similar to the silver birches around my home during this season, England's autumn performances show a blend of highs and lows. Their appeal stems from transformations and natural progress, before the inevitable atrophying dumps of loads of mess all over the place which requires weeks of cleanup amid frustration. And it’s started raining.

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 surpasses the results from 2024, a period featuring three dismal defeats interrupted by a routine win against Japan serving as the conclusion in the last 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, and a trend of unhappiness trailed each match result. This year, valuable lessons have been absorbed, 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, due to the quality in the Fiji roster, could be viewed as arrogance by the coach. However, even though the Fijians are far from pushovers, 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 is perhaps the top team globally when it comes to defeating sides they are expected to beat; they remain the only side undefeated by Italy in the Six Nations for example, and they seldom fall to lower-tier nations.