England beat Fiji in RWC opener

The World Cup used bonus points since 2003 and they are also used in the southern hemisphere’s Rugby Championship and Super Rugby competitions as well as in the European Cup and England and France’s domestic leagues.

More than 2.3 million tickets have been sold for the 48 matches – a World Cup record – and some touts sought more than 10 times the face value of tickets for the opening ceremony and England-Fiji clash.

Burgess was again involved as the English went in search of a bonus point try, on hand to take an offload from Brown before throwing one of his own from the ground. “Equally I am sure both teams will have something up their sleeves”.

And the second half will have done little to cheer them up in a period littered with errors and infringements.

Volavola made no mistake from 30 metres out in front and England’s lead was reduced to 18-11, setting up a potentially nervous final 15 minutes for the home side.

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

Before kick-off Harry gave a speech and told the expectant fans: “There will be moments in this World Cup which will live with us for the rest of our lives”.

Full-back Mike Brown scored a brace, there was a penalty try from a lineout drive and Billy Vunipola grabbed the bonus-point score in added time.

I expect the Australian camp watched the game intently and will be making adjustments to their plans for their opening game against Fiji on Wednesday in Cardiff.

England coach Stuart Lancaster has openly mused about possible changes for the Wales game.

“We got a good win and overcame a bit of adversity so we can take a lot of confidence from that”.

Replacement flyhalf Owen Farrell immediately hit back with a three-pointer and slipped a brilliant off-load following a break by centre Jonathan Joseph through a tiring Fiji defence before Brown claimed his second try.

At the event hosted by the British mission, British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said, “I think that rugby does encapsulate the very best of sport”. However having said all that, they have a tough, tough job getting out of this group of death alive and I just wonder if they have any realistic chance after all. They have a team of big physical men across the board and we have to look at our decision-making there. However, as long as the Australian backs can deal with Nadolo, and his kicking boots don’t fire, like they did tonight then the Wallabies can get their campaign off to a start with a win.