Rugby World Cup 2015: England win over Fiji a ‘massive relief’

Only when Lancaster virtually emptied his bench around the hour mark was there a notable change, with Billy and Mako Vunipola making immediate and direct progress, the team finally building multiple phases that finally had the islanders running out of steam and leaving holes.

England increased their lead on 12 minutes when following a powerful driving maul the referee awarded a penalty try which Ford converted.

THE Vodafone Flying Fijians’ hopes of starting the Rugby World Cup with a win were dashed early yesterday 35-11 by England at a packed Twickenham Stadium.

Fullback Mike Brown was man-of-the-match with two tries, earning the plaudits from his coach and captain.

Gatland hinted that England had no idea what their game plan was for the Rugby World Cup when Lancaster named his squad, but Saracens No 8 Vunipola says the sheer occasion of facing Wales at Twickenham will be the squad’s only focus in the build-up to Saturday night’s game. Players played well today so there is competition for every place and that is probably why I am not happy with my performance with the couple of errors I made. But they obviously did the job in the second half.

Burgess aside, Australia would’ve been heartened for much of the contest by a less-than-convincing display from their Pool A rivals England. If you back Fiji’s defence to be slightly more resolute, you can find odds of 11/10 that they’ll be within 22 points of the hosts. “Bonus points are absolutely invaluable, it puts pressure on sides to go out and get four tries against Fiji“, he added.

And finally they needed an inordinate number of looks at the tries to both Nemani Nadolo and Billy Vunipola when it was obvious after the first viewing they had scored.

“Fiji came hard at the breakdown, they made it very difficult for us”. Head of Sports Sponsorship at O2, Gareth Griffiths, said: “This year we are calling upon the entire country to Wear the Rose and get behind the England Rugby Team”.

Lancaster was smiling at the end but admitted to a few nerves and said the performance has to get better against Wales next Sunday (AEST).

Ellis is said to have been playing football, when he picked up the ball and ran with it, creating the game now known as rugby.

“Subconsciously we didn’t feel a challenge before the game”.

“They pushed us all the way”.

Take no credit away from Fiji who for the majority of the game defended exceptionally but from England’s perspective it just isn’t good enough.