England vs Fiji Prediction: England will have little trouble here

On Sunday, England will play Fiji in a match for a spot in the semifinals of the Rugby World Cup. With their aggressive style of rugby, Fiji have managed to win over a number of impartial fans, but they will still be considered the underdogs in France as England heads into this one as favorites.

At this World Cup, England has had trouble playing well on a consistent basis, and their four victories have come by way of a wide variety of performances. George Ford kicked a field goal to lead them to victory over Argentina, but despite their success over Japan, they had difficulty maintaining coherence and making incisions during the game. After that, they scored a slew of tries and routed Chile 71-0 before escaping with an 18-17 victory over Samoa, which was the scariest game of their entire tournament. There was a two-week break between England's victory over Chile and their match against Samoa, and some people sought to blame that gap for how poorly England played against Samoa. However, it is more likely that old problems came back to haunt England. Any talk of "old issues" may cause England to reflect on their devastating defeat to Fiji at Twickenham before the World Cup. The English were so lacking in nearly every facet of the game that they gave the Fijians the opportunity to breeze right by them. England have struggled against teams that want to play running rugby, with the Japanese opening them up at times and Somoa being all over England in their encounter. This English team will try to take control of the game with their kicking, but if they are successful, Fiji will have a lot of possession of the ball. Will Steve Borthwick consider employing a different strategy in an effort to bring down the flying Fijians?

Fiji's first game of the World Cup was one of the worst losses the tournament has ever seen, despite the fact that they physically dominated Wales and played with incredible speed and precision with the ball. They were ultimately defeated by a handling error that occurred when the clock was in the red, but it would have been so simple for them to win that game. After that, they headed into their match against Australia as the underdogs, knowing that they needed a win in order to move on, and they ended up getting one. With their outstanding performance against Australia, Fiji took a significant step toward advancing to the quarterfinals of the competition. Nevertheless, ever since then, Fiji has been mired in poverty. They were placed under a tremendous amount of pressure and prevented from playing rugby by Georgia, and then they were humiliated by a loss to Portugal by a score of 24–23 in their final match of the pool. Even though their loss did not eliminate them entirely, it should serve as a lesson to them that they cannot just show up, throw the ball around, and win against anyone. After having a difficult time living up to the expectations placed on them as favorites against Georgia and Portugal, Fiji will benefit from entering this match as the underdog. If Fiji are able to play their natural game, they will be a formidable opponent for England. If, on the other hand, they make poor decisions when they have the ball in hand and commit penalties, England will enjoy the opportunity to try to corner them within their own 22.

Although I anticipate that this match will be quite close, I am putting my money on England to emerge victorious in the end. Borthwick's team had a tough week but still managed to pull out a victory, and England is shaping up to be a formidable opponent in this event.