 Is this bottom? Is this as far as England rugby descends into the Red Rose abyss before somehow rising like a phoenix from the flames? As the stony silence surrounded the England team on Saturday, that of disbelief and befuddlement of how a side with much more finance behind it seemingly looked lost against a magnificent Fijian team. Amongst the silence of the English fans you could almost hear the Fijian commentator screaming, 'Are you watching Rishi Sunak? Your boys just took one hell of a beating', but it wasn't needed, because the 30-22 defeat was not that much of a surprise. England have been so far from a collective for so long that when a powerhouse Fiji team rolled into Twickenham there were nerves everywhere. The team, the fans and the coaches would have felt a little jolt of apprehension when Fiji's captain Waisea Nayacalevu scored just after half-time. Even worse, before that when the monsoon dropped its bucket-load of rain, a traditional helping factor for English sides playing Polynesian teams, renowned for their free-flowing, off-loading attacking style, it was Fiji who grew in confidence, who bullied the English defence, and snapped back with brute force defending any English response. Put matter-of-factly, England seem lost, devoid of a collective ability to believe in each other and in what they are doing. England are imitating – they are trying to be something they are not. They are trying to be South Africa, they want to kick and bully, to use blunt force in attack to break down defences and apply pressure. Take the South Africa game just the night before where the real Springboks did that to New Zealand – inflicting a record-breaking 35-7 defeat on the All Blacks at Twickenham – with monumental physicality to show the globe as to why you never write them off before a World Cup. The problem is they are experts at it, it is in their DNA. It's not in England's.){kind=link}
NEWS… BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
Is this bottom? Is this as far as England rugby descends into the Red Rose abyss before somehow rising like a phoenix from the flames?
As the stony silence surrounded the England team on Saturday, that of disbelief and befuddlement of how a side with much more finance behind it seemingly looked lost against a magnificent Fijian team.
Amongst the silence of the English fans you could almost hear the Fijian commentator screaming, ‘Are you watching Rishi Sunak? Your boys just took one hell of a beating’, but it wasn’t needed, because the 30-22 defeat was not that much of a surprise.
England have been so far from a collective for so long that when a powerhouse Fiji team rolled into Twickenham there were nerves everywhere. The team, the fans and the coaches would have felt a little jolt of apprehension when Fiji’s captain Waisea Nayacalevu scored just after half-time.