There is no room for error in the congested Pool A where England, Wales and Australia are fighting for two qualifying berths while Fiji loom as a potential spoiler.
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Sam Burgess, alongside Owen Farrell, added steel to England’s defence, the latter exchanging penalties with Volavola before Mike Brown found himself on the end of a zippy piece of play for his second score.
When Vunipola came on midway in the second half, England had gone more than 30 minutes without scoring.
We’re 100% sure that England are going to win the World Cup now and it’s all thanks to Rio and his really pumped up video…
Nothing special about that return, but he has scored them all since the turn of 2014 ” after a stuttering England career that started in 2007 but which saw the 30-year-old miss out on the last World Cup four years ago.
England face Wales in their next Pool A match at Twickenham on 26 September and, after his substitutions worked so effectively, Lancaster hinted at changes to the starting XV.
Crusaders wing Nemani Nadolo did score just two minutes later from a high ball after a turnover from the resulting scrum, and it was 18-8 to England at half-time.
The hosts got on the scoreboard thanks to a penalty from George Ford before a penalty try on the back of a dominant rolling maul opened a 10-point gap. “The bench made a big difference”.
“We’re going to have to improve on that performance”.
“I know we’re not entitled to win it. There are a few great teams out there and I can’t promise you success, but all I can say is that we’ve left no stone unturned in terms of our preparation”, he said.
“I was just more excited that I had scored a try”.
“We trust our game plan, that’s a good start and we can move on from here”. We were a bit cautious. “Credit to Fiji, they put us under a lot of pressure”, he said.
“It’s my first World Cup and playing here at Twickenham, representing my country like this and to get over the whitewash twice, too, is something special”.
Full-back Mike Brown stretched the home side’s lead to 15-0 on 21 minutes as they capitalised on a terrible Fiji line-out, shipped it out wide in a hurry and the Harlequin stepped inside to finish well. “We’ll watch Wales’ game Sunday, and we’ll meet Sunday night”, he said.
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“We will go back and look at our mistakes and look forward to Australia“.
