The English Team v Fiji – Autumn Nations Series Preview

Similar to the silver birches around my home during this season, England's autumn performances show a blend of highs and lows. Their appeal stems from transformations and natural progress, ahead of the certain deterioration that results in widespread disarray that you must spend weeks clearing up in a foul mood. And it’s started raining.

Steve Borthwick is determined to alter this narrative and the beginning has been favorable for him. The opening win over Australia in this year’s November marks an improvement compared to last year, which included three poor losses and only a basic victory over Japan acting as the final note in the closing week. Considerable discussion occurred during the post-series slump 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. In 2025 lessons have been learned, with the success against the Wallabies leading into the current match with Fiji providing a moment to solidify the optimistic atmosphere.

The English squad shows many changes compared to last week's selection, which given the class sprinkled throughout the Fiji squad could be be seen as hubris from Borthwick. But, while the islanders are no mugs by any measure, they are perennial strugglers in this fixture. A win in the 2023 World Cup warm up games their solitary victory in nine tests vs today’s opposition.

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 rarely lose to tier two opponents.