England have kicked off the Rugby World Cup at Twickenham in London, where more than 80,000 fans watched the hosts beat a dogged Fiji 35-11.
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The Wallabies open their tournament against Fiji in Cardiff on Wednesday (Thursday morning AEST), with the outside backs no doubt keeping an eye on the barnstorming 130kg Nadolo who skittled England’s defenders on several runs and scored his team’s only try.
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.
They then round out their group games with the all-important fixtures against England and finally Wales, both of which will be played at Twickenham. (Pool D) 21.00 France v Italy.
England should be able to settle down now the Rugby World Cup is underway, although the hype that goes with being the home nation will remain an ever-present reality, All Blacks veteran Conrad Smith says.
“Fiji are a world-class team with world class players”. We always select one game at a time and the the bench really put their hands up and that’s what you want them to do.
Before kick-off Harry gave a speech and told the expectant fans: “There will be moments in this World Cup which will live with us for the rest of our lives”.
“We’ve never said we were going to pick the same team week in, week out”, warned Lancaster.
Chris Robshaw’s England know they will face a tough test against Fiji who have giants such as the 6ft 2in (1.88 metre) and 205 pounds (93kilo) Nemani Nadolo.
“We knew what a good recent record Fiji had and they made us work very hard”.
“The greasy ball caused a few mistakes that we wouldn’t have loved to have happened”. The game was interrupted by the TMO on too many occasions and I hope that is not a feature of the World Cup, but all in all a great opening game to what will be, i am sure, an excellent tournament.
“We are a bit disappointed in the dressing room – we came here with high ambitions and felt we had England under pressure at times but critical turnovers and penalties allowed England to come back into the game and stopped us building any momentum”, he said.
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England led 18-8 lead at halftime and it was Fiji who took the initiative after the break by kicking a penalty.
