England will be looking to atone for their World Cup warm-up defeat to Fiji back in August when they take on the islanders on Sunday evening at the Stade Velodrome in the third of this weekend's World Cup quarter-finals.
England v Fiji
Sunday October 15
Stade Velodrome
England 7/20 | Draw 22/1 | Fiji 13/5
It hasn’t been pretty but Steve Borthwick’s men have advanced to the quarter-finals, seeing off rather mediocre opposition to claim first place in Pool D and book a date with the Fijians.
The English can count themselves extremely lucky that they were placed on the easier side of the draw as they would have been in for an early exit had the draw been done later as they would not have fared well in Pool A or B.
Anyway, you can only play what is in front of you and England have managed to come through the pool phase unbeaten even though their victories will not be go under the memorable file.
England’s most impressive moment came in their opener against Argentina as they managed a 27-10 victory despite Tom Curry being red carded during the opening few minutes of the fixture. George Ford was the hero on that day as he nailed a number of penalties and drop goals to give his side a crucial win. England then took on South American minnows Chile, whom they took to task running out 71-0 victors in an encouraging display.
There was a steep decline in their performances from then on in, however, as they beat a Japanese side on the wane 34-12 and then closed their campaign by avoiding another embarrassing defeat as a late try from replacement scrum-half Danny Care saw a strong England side edge Samoan 18-17.
While England were pretty comfortable in their advancement to the quarter-finals, the same can’t be said of the Fijians who really did it the hard way. Simon Raiwalui’s men started their campaign like a house on fire and could have had an opening round win over the Welsh had they not coughed up some gilt edge try-scoring chances and the officiating been better. They did manage to calm what would turn out to be a vital losing bonus point as they went down 32-26 to the Dragons.
Fiji would then claim their second Tier 1 scalp of the year as they beat a wounded Wallabies outfit 15-22. This victory would prove crucial as it was essentially a four-point swing against the Wallabies, who ended third in Pool C. Fiji looked primed for a quarter-final berth from here but they would do things the hard way beating a fired up Georgian outfit 17-22 and then claiming a losing bonus point from their 34-24 loss to minnows Portugal.
In terms of team news, Borthwick faces some major selection issues and not through injury or suspension with the 10-12 axis of Ford and Farrell looking exceedingly poor during their narrow win over Samoa. He really has to choose one of the two to play at fly-half but he’s unlikely to do so which could lead to England’s downfall this Sunday.
Both teams finished their pool phase campaigns in poor fashion. You could see the nerves at play in both games and Sunday’s quarter-final is also likely to be a tetchy old affair. At this point in time, I’m happy to take the Fijians on the plus, and also have a small crack on them for the win.
Verdict: Fiji (+8.5) 17/20
