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Fiji carry national pride into redemption match
The Guardian
|November 06, 2025
England's opponents on Saturday are rising in the world rankings and out to avenge defeat at World Cup
Fiji's wing Jiuta Wainiqolo in action against Australia in July
True, they are the lowest-ranked team England will play this month, but it would be highly dangerous to underestimate Fiji. Coming between an opening victory against Australia and a box-office encounter with the All Blacks, it might be easy to regard the Twickenham game on Saturday as a relatively straightforward assignment. Easy, but foolish.
You don't have to go back far - two years or so, to an autumn afternoon in Marseille and England's 2023 Rugby World Cup quarterfinal - to remember how potent Fiji can be as England ultimately scraped through with a six-point win. This came weeks after Fiji made history at Twickenham, beating England for the first time in a pre-tournament warm-up game. That amounted to England's sixth defeat in nine during the shaky beginning of Steve Borthwick's reign. It was difficult then to imagine them progressing to a semifinal defeat by the Springboks.
This story is from the November 06, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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