England dispatch Fiji at Twickenham

England ended up taking care of Fiji on and off the field at Twickenham in a record 58-15 rugby Test win.

The result and England’s 12th successive win were in the bag within the first half hour, as the host side rocketed to 31-0 with five tries against a flimsy defence on Saturday (Sunday AEDT).

Then the England players showed how charitable they can be by gifting Fiji three consecutive tries bridging halftime.

None of them were converted, and nobody believed that a comeback win was possible by Fiji.

England needed to get serious again.

Three minutes after Fiji’s third and last try, England kicked to the right corner, drove the lineout, and captain Dylan Hartley scored.

It was the perfect “bore-them-to-death” play demanded by coach Eddie Jones.

Only the try was ruled out by obstruction.

England reset.

Flyhalf George Ford, the star of England’s show with his deft short and long passes, sent Fiji-born winger Semesa Rokoduguni spearing across field to the left corner. Back the ball came, and fullback Alex Goode scored England’s sixth try from an overlap.

In quick succession, centre Jonathan Joseph, Rokoduguni and lock Joe Launchbury all scored their second tries of the game, England matched their highest score against Fiji, and set a new mark by margin.

“If we want greatness in our team we have to maintain that intensity after racing into an early lead,” Jones said.

“There were some great individual performances but there are obviously areas we have to improve on against Argentina (next weekend), which is going to be a tricky game.

“We played really good English rugby. Some of George Ford’s alignment on some of the phase ball was absolutely outstanding, the best I have seen for a long time.”

Before the match, England officials also showed the depth of their generosity.

From expected gate takings of STG10 million ($A17 million) on Saturday, the English agreed to pay the Fiji Rugby Union STG75,000 ($A126,000), half of what was requested, as a gesture of goodwill, because England hasn’t visited Fiji since 1991.

Each England player was receiving STG22,000 ($A37,000) for the match, compared to STG400 ($A672) for each Fijian.

The disparity was very much evident from the opening kickoff.

England made five changes after beating South Africa last weekend for the first time in 10 years, and still looked well oiled.

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