England vs Fiji: Player Ratings

Battling for the ball: Volavola and Watson compete
ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/Getty Images
Jack de Menezes21 September 2015

Standard Sport assesses the host's individual performances in England's 35-11 victory over Fiji.

Mike Brown: 7

Finished both of his tries well when under and his crucial intervention saw Matawalu’s 50-score chalked off.

Anthony Watson: 5

Little he could do when defending against Nadolo in the air and dragged into touch when given half a chance to score.

Jonathan Joseph: 5

Quick hands to feed Brown for the try but dropped simple pass and looked off the pace with little chance to impose.

Brad Barritt: 6

Penalised in the first half for not rolling but defensively astute in holding out the powerful Fijians.

Johnny May: 7

Needed all of his pace to catch Matawalu on the break but contested in the air superbly and can be pleased with his work.

FRANCK FIFE/AFP/Getty Images

George Ford: 7

Dealt with the occasion well from the start but lacked the running game that we’ve been expecting of him.

Ben Youngs: 5

Allowed the kick-off to bounce and his first-half box-kicking was poor. Hauled off early in the second half to cap a miserable 50th appearance.

Rugby World Cup 2015: Opening ceremony in pictures

1/14

Joe Marler: 7

Got a challenge and then some from Saulo, and will take heart from a good first outing. Replaced by Vunipola shortly after the break.

Tom Youngs: 6

Alarm bells were ringing when he missed his first lineout but he recovered well with string runs and a 70-minute-plus shift.

Shaun Botterill/Getty Images

Dan Cole: 7

Won his first battle with Ma’afu and remained a rock for the English front-row that enjoyed the front-foot all night.

Courtney Lawes: 6

Outmuscled in the collision in his one meaningful run and didn’t have as big an impact England would have liked.

GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images

Geoff Parling: 6

Ran the lineout well but appeared to take a knock to the head early in the second and departed soon after.

Tom Wood: 6

Snatched a lineout on the Fijian line but needless throw around the neck of an opponent cost England in good position.

GLYN KIRK/AFP/Getty Images

Chris Robshaw: 6

Guilty of not rolling away but otherwise a strong, if quiet performance from the England skipper.

Ben Morgan: 6

Lacked any of the powerful runs that we’ve become expected of him and replaced by Billy Vunipola shortly after the break.

OFF THE BENCH

Robb Webber: 5

Given little time to make an impact thanks to Youngs’ long shift, but his time is likely to come against Uruguay.

Shaun Botterill/Getty Images

Mako Vunipola: 5

As is his way he lost the first scrum following his introduction, but didn’t concede another penalty there on in.

Kieran Brookes: 5

Cole’s spell in the front-row gave Brookes minimal time to do anything of note.

Joe Launchbury: 6

Important tackle on Nadolo halted a threatening attack.

Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

Billy Vunipola: 6

Looked much more on the money than in previous outings and looked eager to get his hands on the ball.

Richard Wigglesworth: 6

Quick thinking led to two big breaks that saw him charge into Fijian territory and his passing was sharp and precise.

Owen Farrell: 6

Goal-kicking as faultless as expected and controlled the game when Fiji were threatening to ruin the party.

Sam Burgess: 6

Impressed when he came on with two lovely offloads releasing Wood and Brown respectively.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in