Similar to the silver birches around my home during this season, the English side during fall presents a varied display. How lovely they can look due to the changes and natural developments, before the inevitable atrophying dumps of loads of mess all over the place which requires weeks of cleanup amid frustration. And now, precipitation has commenced.
England's coach Steve Borthwick aims to transform this scenario and the beginning has been favorable for him. The opening win over Australia in this year’s November surpasses the results from 2024, when three miserable losses were punctuated by a bog-standard win over Japan acting as the final note in the closing week. Much was made amidst the post-series malaise regarding how the initial matches against New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa made the schedule overly challenging, with a momentum of misery accompanying each week’s result. For 2025, insights have been gained, with the success against the Wallabies leading into the current match with Fiji offering an opportunity to reinforce the good feelings.
The English squad shows many changes compared to last week's selection, and considering the talent present in the Fijian team, this might appear overconfident from Borthwick. However, even though the Fijians are far from pushovers, they have historically faced challenges in this matchup. Their lone win in nine tests against today's rivals came during the 2023 World Cup warm-ups.
England are also arguably the best team in the world at despatching teams they should not struggle against; they remain the only side undefeated by Italy in the Six Nations for example, and they seldom fall to lower-tier nations.
A tech enthusiast and writer passionate about emerging technologies and their impact on society, with a background in computer science.
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