The English Team v the Fijian Squad – Fall International Rugby Match Analysis

Much like the silver birches in my neighborhood in autumn, 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 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. The opening win over Australia in this year’s November marks an improvement compared to last year, which included three poor losses and only a basic victory over Japan acting as the final note in the closing 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, and a trend of unhappiness trailed each match result. In 2025 lessons have been learned, with the win over the Wallabies followed with today’s outing against Fiji providing a moment to solidify the optimistic atmosphere.

It’s a much changed England team from last week, which given the class sprinkled throughout the Fiji squad could be be seen as hubris from Borthwick. Yet, despite the island nation's undeniable skill, 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 hold the distinction of being unbeaten against Italy in the Six Nations, with infrequent losses to second-tier teams.