The English Team versus Fiji – Fall International Rugby Overview
Match Updates
Preamble
Similar to the silver birches around my home during this season, England's autumn performances show a blend of highs and lows. How lovely they can look due to the changes and natural developments, before the inevitable atrophying dumps of loads of mess all over the place which requires weeks of cleanup amid frustration. Plus, the rain has begun to fall.
Steve Borthwick will powerfully wish to change this picture and the beginning has been favorable for him. Their initial victory against Australia this November marks an improvement compared to last year, when three miserable losses were punctuated by a bog-standard win over Japan as the full stop in the final week. Considerable discussion occurred during the post-series slump regarding how the initial matches against New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa made the schedule overly challenging, where a wave of disappointment followed every weekly outcome. This year, valuable lessons have been absorbed, as the victory over Australia is now followed by today's game versus Fiji providing a moment to solidify the optimistic atmosphere.
The English squad shows many changes compared to last week's selection, which given the class sprinkled throughout the Fiji squad could be be seen as hubris from Borthwick. However, even though the Fijians are far from pushovers, they have historically faced challenges in this matchup. A win in the 2023 World Cup warm up games their solitary victory in nine tests vs today’s opposition.
England are also arguably the best team in the world at despatching teams they should not struggle against; for instance, they are the sole team never beaten by Italy in the Six Nations, with infrequent losses to second-tier teams.
