Steve Borthwick saw it coming. Immediately after Fiji beat England at Twickenham, his side sent off on their French adventure by a chorus of boos, Borthwick made a prediction. “We knew they were an excellent side,” the England head coach said. “I think they are going to do very well at the World Cup. There’s the potential we might meet them again in a few weeks’ time.”
And here we are, seven weeks on, with England ready to reacquaint themselves with Fiji on Sunday afternoon. This is a World Cup quarter-final that does not much look like a World Cup quarter-final – a team beaten by Portugal a week ago against one that could only scrape past Samoa by a single point in their final pool game.
