Billy Vunipola muscled over for a late try to give England a 35-11 win in a disjointed display at Twickenham.
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The outing will be Wood’s second taste of World Cup action after making one start in England’s 2011 campaign when he lined up against Georgia. “We needed some energy from the bench and they all brought a bit more punch to the performance and we got quicker ball.
I’m just happy we won and we move on to the next game”.
The World Cup used bonus points since 2003 and they are also used in the southern hemisphere’s Rugby Championship and Super Rugby competitions as well as in the European Cup and England and France’s domestic leagues.
England were deserved winners but were far from their best in this opening match, as they lacked fluidity in attack for significant periods, despite scoring four tries.
Full-back Brown then made it 15-0 after England had turned over a Fiji lineout.
The tournament co-hosts turned the ball over 11 times and their famed scrum was put under constant pressure from the unheralded Fijian forwards.
Referee Jaco Peyper had to go to the TMO after Vunipola barged his way over but he was given the all clear and England had what they were looking for. “I was trying to build their belief that they can go on and win the tournament”.
The former Rabbitohs forward replaced Brad Barritt in the centres with the game still very much in the balance.
However, had Fiji been more clinical with their kicking the scoreline would have been closer. England get on the rolling maul and Matawalu is penalised for stopping the advance and is sin-binned. A great break from the base of the scrum from Matawalu and he beats the attentions of Watson and Brown but drops the ball just before the line.
Nadolo, Fiji’s goal-kicker, might have wished he had taken a conversion missed by Volovola especially as a Ford penalty soon made it 18-5 to England.
England kicked the first penalty from the boot of George Ford.
“He fits really well into this England structure. If we could have picked up three or six points when the score was 18-11, the final 20 minutes could have been different”.
Fiji offered massive physicality but little or no teamwork yet it was only in the last play of the match that second-half replacement Billy Vinupola crashed over for the all-important fourth try and that extra bonus point that could prove critical in England’s group of death.
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Strangely though Vunipola did not know the significance of his score.
