England delay naming team for Fiji Test

“Playing against Fiji was a huge deal for me”.

“I am proudly Fijian, and we play for all Fijians”.

“When I scored my tries I was celebrating on the inside because the boys did all of the hard work – especially George Ford and Jonathan Joseph”.

“People have named teams and then changed before kick-off but we don’t have a history of doing that”.

“If we can pick that up next week we will be in top form”.

England made it 12 successive wins, and 11 of those coming since Jones took over the reins after the World Cup failure.

It looked as if a humiliation was on the cards but Fiji finally got their hands on the ball and hit back with two tries for unstoppable winger Nemani Nadolo and lock Leone Nakarawa, who stuck out a seemingly telescopic arm for their second.

Just moments later Alex Goode dived over for his first global try to give England regained dominance and Farrell converted. Owen Farrell is also set to move past the 500-point mark in Test rugby, with Jonny Wilkinson suggesting he will “be surprised and disappointed” if the 25-year-old does not overhaul his distant English record of 1,179.

The result of the match was to see the England coaches opt for a less attacking-minded approach and resort to a type of ten man rugby that wasn’t enough against Wales and disastrous against the brilliant Wallabies later in the pool. “It can always be better”, he said.

Metuisela Talebula crossed after the restart but it was as good as it got for Fiji as Alex Goode, Joseph, Rokoduguni and Launchbury crossed in the final half hour to seal a comfortable victory over the Islanders.

“Some of George Ford’s alignment on some of the phase ball was absolutely outstanding, the best I have seen for a long time”.

“There were some great individual performances but there are obviously areas we have to improve on against Argentina which is going to be a tricky game”. We haven’t done that.

Meanwhile, Jones revealed he will not stand in the way of forwards coach Steve Borthwick if he is selected as a member of Warren Gatland’s staff when the British and Irish Lions tour New Zealand next year.

With Hughes also having had a “lower leg injury” this week and May described by Eddie Jones as “not 100% fit to play Test rugby” after the energy-sapping South Africa encounter there is more uncertainty than any coach would prefer. “There is no etiquette”, Jones said.

Since the last World Cup, when Fiji gave England a hurry-up, lost by a total of 25 points to Australia and Wales and thumped Uruguay, McKee and his players have been virtual strangers – they might as well have been internet dating and been sharing awkward glances over a bottle of cheap vino.

“Nathan is a six or eight and while we could play him at seven, our preference is to play him at six and eight”.