England v the Fijian Squad – Autumn Nations Series Preview

Like the silver birches near my house at this time of year, the English side during fall presents a varied display. They often appear impressive because of shifts and organic growth, ahead of the certain deterioration that results in widespread disarray that you must spend weeks clearing up in a foul mood. Plus, the rain has begun to fall.

Steve Borthwick is determined to alter this narrative with a decent start already under his belt. The opening win over Australia in this year’s November marks an improvement compared to last year, a period featuring three dismal defeats interrupted by a routine win against Japan acting as the final note in the closing 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. In 2025 lessons have been learned, with the win over the Wallabies followed with today’s outing against Fiji offering an opportunity to reinforce the good feelings.

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 are perennial strugglers in this fixture. 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, and they seldom fall to lower-tier nations.