With Marcus Smith at full-back and a highly mobile back five in the pack, Steve Borthwick could play with the handbrake fully off
M
uch has happened in the 27 months since Fiji were last at Twickenham and beat England. You would certainly have had decent odds back then on the home side’s reserve prop Joe Marler becoming a national TV treasure, a fever dream roughly on a par with Claudia Winkleman shaving off her hair and packing down at loosehead. Who knew?
But here we are in an increasingly parallel universe. Big Joe now has Alan Carr and Sir Stephen Fry on speed dial while England, since the 30-22 defeat in August 2023, have also undergone their own extreme makeover. Having been a team who, by the admission of their own coach early in his tenure, “weren’t good at anything” they are now hoping to extend an eight-match winning run after defeating Australia comfortably last week.
Nowadays they can make nine changes – including two new faces on the bench – and field a combination which, on paper, could be even more of an attacking handful. While Fiji have some eye-catching individuals of their own they will also have to deal with an England bench which is starting to munch through wilting opponents late on like a very hungry caterpillar.
