Wynne Gray: Home comforts brought little relief for England

England celebrate a try during the opening match, of Pool A match between Fiji and England held at Twickenham Stadium. Photo / Brett Phibbs.

The comfort of home, playing on their familiar Twickenham headquarters with the boisterous support of a massive crowd, brought little relief for England.

They wanted to strangle and stifle Fiji, choke them into the manicured turf with the supposed technical advantage from their pack. A bonus point 35-11 England victory looked impressive but it was a massively deceptive result.

One early driving maul showed that superiority and brought a penalty try and there was a shunt or two at scrums but too often England looked uncertain in the drizzly conditions.

Arguments will vary about whether that was the weight of expectation or a lack of skill.

Even when they were a man up with Fiji's halfback Nikola Matawalu in the sinbin, they battled to find space and use their numerical advantage. Fullback Mike Brown scored when centre Jonathan Joseph tipped on a great transfer after slow ball inside threatened to snuff out the chance.

But at 15-0 on their own dirt, England should have pushed on.

Instead they were dumped on their ponderous rump by their inability to go forward instead of sideways and by the defending spirit and ball-skills from Fiji. Halfback Matawalu lost a try to TMO vigilance after a brilliant 50m run and evasion before massive wing Nemani Nadolo claimed a crosskick from the subsequent move to score.

All the heat was coming from Fiji and most of the spirit. The impetuous Matawalu tapped a penalty and lost out but that intent left England very twitchy.

A slippery ball and greasy surface did not help control but England's decision-makers need to provide much more if they want to persuade many they can go deep in the tournament.

While we had been warned there would be extra vigilance from referees, the sideline intervention from Jaco Peyper's assistants often seemed irrelevant. Even he seemed to be looking for all sorts of illegalities in a sport which demands physical supremacy.

Nadolo missed two penalties after the interval before Ben Volavola kicked the next while England emptied their bench to try and find some way to stem the visitors' onslaught.

Fullback Mike Brown capitalized as Fiji's challenge dwindled and England had a victory which looked so distant for most of this opening match of the World Cup.