Pressure All on England – McKee

It was a win – and a bonus point win at that – but, in truth, that’s about all that can be said for England as they fluffed their lines on the opening night of the World Cup.

Replacement prop Kieran Brookes meanwhile says playing in a World Cup is a “massive dream come true”, especially given he only made his full global debut last June.

Vunipola’s impressive display in the last 20 minutes, when his powerful, direct running helped England regain control of the game, has put him in the frame to regain the starting number eight slot from Ben Morgan, who was below his best on Friday.

Chris Robshaw’s England know they will face a tough test against Fiji who have giants such as the 6ft 2in (1.88 metre) and 205 pounds (93kilo) Nemani Nadolo. A great snaffle of Fiji’s lineout from Tom Wood and it goes through the backs to Mike Brown, who dives over near the corner.

England and Fiji will be the immediate centre of attention at Twickenham, the host country’s home ground for more than a century and one of rugby’s biggest stadiums with an 82,500 seat capacity and its own hotel.

England’s Billy Vuniopola dives in for the try, confirmed by the TMO after referee Jaco Peyper had an impeded view of the play. “England are probably looking at their games and thinking they are going to have to sharpen up for games against Wales and Australia”. Worse still, when scrum-half Niko Matawalu returned from the sin-bin the Islanders moved up another gear.

Things then went awry for the hosts as their scrum malfunctioned and Fiji’s livewire scrumhalf Nikola Matawalu had a try ruled out as he dropped the ball on the line having darted 50 metres.

But he was terrorising England soon after…

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However, a ruck infringement gave Ford a penalty chance but his 52m effort just fell short and England led by 10 points at the break.

Ford and Nadolo then traded penalties to make it 18-8 at the interval, but it would have been a concerned dressing room for Stuart Lancaster and his coaches.

“We can just take a deep breath now and we’re into it”.

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