England 35 Fiji 11

England coach Stuart Lancaster admitted his relief after his team started their World Cup campaign with a win.

Brown, who was out for three months after suffering concussion during the Six Nations, said: “It’s an emotional time for me to score in my first World Cup“.

The Pacific Islanders also copped a yellow card to their halfback Nikola Matawalu as a penalty try was awarded after 12 minutes, and England scored again 10 minutes later through fullback Mike Brown’s close-range effort.

Fiji first-five Ben Volavola landed a penalty in the 63rd minute to make it a seven point game, but from then on it was all England.

That profligacy allowed England to wriggle off the hook, however, and, after substitute Owen Farrell steadied the nerves with a penalty of his own, Brown added his second try of the match when he capitalised on a strong run from Farrell to bundle over the line.

The big winger shows how much playing for Fiji means to him during “God Bless Fiji” at Twickenham.

“We select it on a week by week basis, assess the performance and decide what’s best to play Wales”.

Vunipola’s score at the death was England’s fourth try of the game which earned them an important extra point in their Pool A opening match.

“He lifted the team in the second half by the scruff of the neck”.

With the potential for Australia, Wales and England to beat each other in a tough Pool A, a bonus point could prove key in deciding progress to the quarter-finals.

“The opening game can be edgy and you have to give a lot of credit to Fiji”.

“It’ll just be a great time, we’ve got 25 sides from all round Europe coming, so a great weekend in rugby and we shall see how England go”.

A decent start by the English, the scoreline flattered them a little bit as the Fijians battled hard and were impressive in spells.

HE is the former Peter Symonds student who is hoping to help England win the Rugby World Cup.

“We didn’t get our game plan into action”.

“Fiji will cause every team problems if I’m honest”.

England had the weekend off and will reconvene at their Bagshot base on Sunday night, but Lancaster insisted that the work up front will be high priority when they begin training on Tuesday.

Nevertheless the number eight said, “I was just more excited that I’d scored a try”.