Match Updates
Introduction
Similar to the silver birches around my home during this season, England in the autumn are a mixed offering. 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 demanding extensive tidying efforts while feeling irritable. And it’s started raining.
England's coach Steve Borthwick aims to transform this scenario with a decent start already under his belt. The opening win over Australia in this year’s November is already better than 2024, when three miserable losses were punctuated by a bog-standard win over Japan acting as the final note in the closing week. Much was made amidst the post-series malaise that facing NZ, Australia, and Springboks first created an excessively tough start, and a trend of unhappiness trailed each match result. For 2025, insights have been gained, with the win over the Wallabies followed with today’s outing against Fiji offering an opportunity to reinforce the good feelings.
England has fielded a significantly altered lineup from the previous week, which, due to the quality in the Fiji roster, could be viewed as arrogance by the coach. But, while the islanders are no mugs by any measure, 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; they remain the only side undefeated by Italy in the Six Nations for example, with infrequent losses to second-tier teams.
