England lost 45-21 to South Africa. Next up is Fiji, who rarely beat England.
South Africa scored 7 tries to beat England 45-21 at Ellis Park in the first game of the new Nations Championship. Fiji come to Liverpool in 7 days.
What happened
South Africa beat England 45-21 at Ellis Park, running in seven tries in their Nations Championship opener in front of nearly 53,000 in Johannesburg.
South Africa led by 17 points inside twelve minutes, with tries from Thomas du Toit, Cheslin Kolbe and Kurt-Lee Arendse. England cut the gap to three points by half-time, with solo tries from Ellis Genge and George Martin.
The comeback ended after the break. Grant Williams and Jesse Kriel scored within sixteen minutes of the restart, and late tries from Malcolm Marx and Ben-Jason Dixon turned a close game into a heavy defeat.
England finished with thirteen players on the field after Tommy Freeman and Guy Pepper were sent off for ten minutes each with yellow cards. Damian Willemse and Kolbe, both playing their 50th game for South Africa, were among the best players. The game was the first of the new Nations Championship.
Next, England play Fiji in Liverpool on . Jamie George is captain, with Maro Itoje rested for the summer games. The match is at the Hill Dickinson Stadium, and Argentina follow in Santiago del Estero on .
Sources: Sky Sports, ESPN, RFU
The Pattern
England have beaten Fiji in eight of nine games since 1988. The five most recent are below. The one defeat is also the most recent game played in England: a warm-up match at Twickenham in .
Show the other 3 cases
The Read
History favours England. Fiji have beaten them once in nine games, and England are at home. The 2023 defeat at Twickenham came against a weakened England team in a warm-up game. Ellis Park is one of the hardest away grounds in rugby, so losing there by 24 says less about the Fiji game than the score suggests. England also came back from 17 points down to three behind by half-time, which suggests their problems came in short bursts.
The worry is those bursts. England gave away three tries in twelve minutes, lost the second half 28-6 and finished with thirteen players. Fiji’s fast counter-attack punishes exactly those mistakes, as they showed at Twickenham in 2023. The new ground in Liverpool is home only in name, and the last time the two sides met in England, England lost.
Our market gives England 71 per cent, a strong lead with a clear weak spot. The game in Liverpool on settles it.
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