England increased their lead on 12 minutes when following a powerful driving maul the referee awarded a penalty try which Ford converted.
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“To be truthfully honest with you, I didn’t know that bonus points counted in the World Cup”, the 22-year-old said after the match.
Now we’ve never seen Rio talk about rugby before, but it turns out he is a MASSIVE fan, like a seriously massive fan!
With the Rugby World Cup kicking off this Friday evening, a very rare thing seems to be happening in the Transfer Tavern, and that is the conversation is being stretched further than just Football!
“We know that the club and country will get behind England and this club will be packed to the rafters to cheer them on”.
However, had Fiji been more clinical with their kicking the scoreline would have been closer.
England are still a threat in this tournament but only if they win the group, because life gets hard in the knockout rounds for any team finishing second.
“We didn’t get our game plan into action”, he added.
England scored four tries in the game, netting them the bonus point, to cap off a good start to the tournament for the hosts.
England have been drawn in what has been dubbed the “pool of death” which features Australia, Uruguay, Fiji and Wales.
Fiji thought they’d reduced their 15-0 deficit just minutes later, as scrum-half Nikola Matawalu touched down under pressure from Brown.
His brother Mako also made an impact and, after England’s scrum surprisingly failed to dominate, Lancaster will be considering both men for a starting berth against Wales back at Twickenham next Saturday.
The hosts struggled to replicate their earlier tempo in the first half, and it took until after the hour mark for more points to be registered, with Fiji claiming another three thanks to a Volavola penalty.
As expected, it was a hard-fought affair, but two Mike Brown tries, one from Billy Vunipola and a penalty try gave England a vital opening win.
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“Some of the guys from the bench really put their hands up and we have some big decisions for next week against Wales”, said Lancaster, who has eight days to recalibrate his players before facing their neighbours back at Twickenham.
