Volkswacht Bodensee - Fiji defeat England for first time to send World Cup warning

NYSE - LSE
RBGPF -2.14% 70 $
BCC -0.94% 75.42 $
RYCEF -3.6% 17.5 $
JRI -0.94% 10.462 $
NGG -2.64% 79.13 $
RELX 0.41% 39.22 $
BCE -2.03% 19.925 $
AZN -0.15% 165.155 $
GSK -0.05% 49.485 $
RIO -1.15% 89.29 $
CMSC 0.03% 19.895 $
CMSD 0.35% 19.93 $
BTI -1.75% 58.97 $
VOD -0.97% 15.955 $
BP -1.42% 49.505 $
Fiji defeat England for first time to send World Cup warning
Fiji defeat England for first time to send World Cup warning / Photo: © AFP

Fiji defeat England for first time to send World Cup warning

Fiji beat England for the first time with a 30-22 victory in a Rugby World Cup warm-up match at Twickenham on Saturday.

Text size:

The Pacific islanders fully deserved their win in a match where both teams scored three tries, with this reverse meaning England head to the World Cup in France on a run of five defeats in six matches.

Fiji were 12 points ahead early in the second half and although England closed to within a point, the visitors pulled clear with a try seven minutes from time by replacement Simione Kuruvoli.

England desperately needed a win ahead of a tough Pool D World Cup opener against Argentina in Marseille on September 9.

Fiji, meanwhile will be in buoyant mood in the run-up to a World Cup they begin against Wales -- the team they knocked out of the 2007 edition in France -- in Bordeaux on September 10.

J.Fankhauser--BTB