CHISELDON’S Jonny May was left frustrated by England’s opening performance in the World Cup, despite starting with a 35-11 win over Fiji. 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.
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The Harlequins man scored two tries on his competition debut but a series of kicking errors leaves the 30-year-old sweating over his place.
However, had Fiji been more clinical with their kicking the scoreline would have been closer.
England accelerated into a 15-0 lead courtesy of an early George Ford penalty, a penalty try from a rolling maul and a Mike Brown score in the corner after Tom Wood stole a Fijian line-out five metres out and Jonathan Joseph’s quick hands created space out wide.
The big winger shows how much playing for Fiji means to him during “God Bless Fiji” at Twickenham.
Brown, who won his 40th global cap in the tournament opener at Twickenham, has been a mainstay of the England team under Stuart Lancaster.
“We knew it was going to be tough”.
Fiji coach John McKee suggested England should have been unhappy with their performance and would need to improve to see off Wales and two-time champions Australia.
Ben Morgan looked rusty after his six month layoff and could be passed over for Billy Vunipola – whose hard running helped England secure the bonus point with the clock in the red. “We’ll watch Wales’ game Sunday, and we’ll meet Sunday night”, he said.
And he inspires the team because he plays with such courage pace and power and lifted the team in the second half by the scruff of the neck’.
Credit to Fiji, they put us under a lot of pressure.
“We had to warm up inside and do things a bit differently, but it was a huge occasion”.
“We know we need to be better than that against Wales next week”, Lancaster said. Fiji had closed to within seven points at 18-11.
“England are probably looking at their games and thinking they are going to have to sharpen up for games against Wales and Australia“.
Will Greenwood joined the Soccer AM gang on Saturday and said that England had a nervy start to the Rugby World Cup against Fiji on Friday night.
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“I was just more excited that I had scored a try”.
