The English Team versus the Fijian Squad – Autumn Nations Series Preview

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, ahead of the certain deterioration that results in widespread disarray that you must spend weeks clearing up in a foul mood. And it’s started raining.

England's coach Steve Borthwick aims to transform this scenario and it’s started OK for him. Their initial victory against Australia this November surpasses the results from 2024, when three miserable losses were punctuated by a bog-standard win over Japan serving as the conclusion in the last week. Much was made amidst the post-series malaise regarding how the initial matches against New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa made the schedule overly challenging, with a momentum of misery accompanying each week’s result. This year, valuable lessons have been absorbed, with the success against the Wallabies leading into the current match with Fiji providing a moment to solidify the optimistic atmosphere.

The English squad shows many changes compared to last week's selection, which, due to the quality in the Fiji roster, could be viewed as arrogance by the coach. However, even though the Fijians are far from pushovers, they have historically faced challenges in this matchup. Their lone win in nine tests against today's rivals came during the 2023 World Cup warm-ups.

England are also arguably the best team in the world at despatching teams they should not struggle against; they hold the distinction of being unbeaten against Italy in the Six Nations, and rarely lose to tier two opponents.