England will not so much hop on the Eurostar this morning as hobble towards the nearest available aisle seat. Yesterday's entertaining quarter-final play-off against Fiji may have been one of the better advertisements for the game during this World Cup but, as an exercise in boosting England's chances of winning the tournament, it was far from a comfortable ride for Clive Woodward's team.
Woodward could find himself short of up to five of his 30-strong squad against the world champions and those left standing will have to dig even deeper into their well-chronicled fitness reserves.
"How long have you got?" replied the coach, asked to run through the full list of casualties. "We're a bit battered and bruised but I don't think anyone will be missing from our selection for Sunday." The fitness of Dan Luger, Matt Perry, Austin Healey and Jonny Wilkinson, however, will be anxiously monitored today and Jeremy Guscott's groin injury seems increasingly likely to rule him out of the rest of the tournament.
Healey has a bad back and his half-back partner Wilkinson was helped off the field with 10 minutes left after being hit fractionally late by the Fijian captain Greg Smith. As the young fly-half had kicked seven penalties and a conversion and enjoyed a pretty good attacking day, it was not a sight to delight England fans, even the misguided ones who booed as the home side continued to opt for kicks at goal.
The truth, as Woodward conceded later, was that England could not afford to take anything for granted against a Fijian side who did Pacific Island rugby proud and could have caused serious damage in the first half. Rarely has the adage that catches win matches applied so often at Twickenham, as opposed to Lord's. Fiji might have had four tries in the first 40 minutes had the final pass not been shelled and, though England's 21 points then fairly reflected an ability to take their chances, a solitary penalty goal for Waisale Serevi was scant reward for Fiji's creativity.
It took a desperate killing-the-ball dive by Nick Beal, who received a raking and a yellow card for his trouble, to stop a 75-metre movement begun by Viliame Satala and a third chance went begging when Imanueli Tikomaimakogai could not hold his fullback Alfred Uluinayau's final pass. Instead England scored again, Wilkinson landing a cross-kick on a sixpence for Neil Back to gather and touch down; the Fijian challenge was effectively neutered.
Beal and Phil Greening added further England tries but Fiji lost the second-half only 24-21 as they scored three entertaining tries, the last of them in the final minute through Meli Nakauta. "We ended up playing their style of rugby and we weren't as good at it," conceded Woodward.
