Will Greenwood praises battling England after World Cup win over Fiji

It took 61 minutes, but Sam Burgess made his Rugby World Cup debut for England against Fiji at Twickenham on Saturday morning (AEST).

The hosts led 18-8 at the break thanks to an early penalty try before Mike Brown dived over for his first of a brace on the night with Fiji down to 14 men.

Brown scored his second try and then Billy Vunipola crashed over in the 81st minute to secure England a bonus point win.

Nadolo missed two penalties that could have put serious pressure on England, but then Ben Volavola narrowed the gap with a penalty to make it 18-11 with 15 minutes to play.

But he was terrorising England soon after…

… Analysis showed a dropped ball over the line, but strong work from the Fiji scrum paved the way for a top class cross-kick from Volavola, who found giant wing Namali Nadolo leaping above Anthony Watson for a sublime try.

It was enough to impress England’s World Cup champion Jonny Wilkinson – who was commentating on the match for English television.

Fiji next take on Australia at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on 23 September while England face Wales at Twickenham on 26 September.

England should be able to settle down now the Rugby World Cup is underway, although the hype that goes with being the home nation will remain an ever-present reality, All Blacks veteran Conrad Smith says.

Supporters of it will point to Friday’s late drama as an illustration of how the system keeps the excitement going until the end.

“I was just more excited that I had scored a try”. “There were a few forced errors which we won’t be too happy about but these things happen and we’ll learn from them but there are plenty of positives and to get a bonus point in the first game is massive”.

Brown scored two tries as England ran out comfortable 35-11 winners.

“There are areas we need to work on”.

“The opening game can be edgy and you have to give a lot of credit to Fiji. I think all our players will be pleased to have got the four tries (against Fiji) but they will all think that we need to be better to beat Wales”. We couldn’t hear much in the changing rooms… the boys were like caged animals because normally they’d be out on the field warming up.

The first half-hour could not have gone any better for England as they looked sharp and focused from the off.