It is with a heavy sigh and a lot of disappointment that England have exited the World Cup in the pool stages, after losing back-to-back games against Wales and Australia. The home nation's tournament got off to a good start against Fiji, but it just was not to be against the more difficult opponents in what was termed the 'pool of death'. The question is, what did England do wrong and what did our opponents do right?
Our first game against Fiji was by no means perfect - there were plenty of mistakes and we started the second half very slowly - but we eventually came out on top and got, what was at that time, a very important bonus point. Neither Australia nor Wales managed to achieve this and considering the fact that Fiji have talent in abundance, it seemed to put us in a good position for the other fixtures. George Ford had a very controlled game, managing to get us in the right places on the pitch and stop the opposition from getting any good position themselves. He has certainly come on leaps and bounds in the past couple of years, giving England so much more attacking flair in the process. Mike Brown also had a great game considering that he came up against Nemani Nadolo - probably Fiji's best player on the day. A huge guy, any player would need some serious balls to take him on. Brown is probably the one England player who would fit this description to a T - he never shies away from the high ball, and will give the contest everything that he's got.
