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Apart from man of the match fullback Mike Brown, England found little joy in their 35-11 win over Fiji at Twickenham yesterday to open the 2015 Rugby World Cup campaign.
Brown was as spectacular as the opening ceremony in scoring twice, narrowly missing a third, and saving one at the other end.
He ran 172 metres over the 80 minutes, well ahead of live-wire Fijian halfback Nikola Matawalu’s 71, England winger Jonny May’s 63, and behemoth Fijian winger Nemani Nadolo’s 48.
Maybe England didn’t feel at home having lost the toss to Fiji who had choice of dressing room and jersey even though England is host of the tournament, and Twickenham is their home ground.
So England had to use the much smaller away shed, and with Fiji opting to play in their traditional white jersey, England had to forsake their white jersey, and selected a boring two-tone red number.
And they played boring rugby, not anywhere near the standard required to finish in the top two of the tough ‘Pool of Death’ to qualify for the play-offs.
The Wallabies and Wales are in the same pool, and would have gained an enormous morale boost watching England really struggle. Their much-vaunted pack was subdued by the Fijians, forcing 11 turnovers to just four.
And if it wasn’t for South African referee Jaco Peyper allowing England’s backs to be constantly offside, the game would have been a lot closer.
There are no Usain Bolts among the England backs, but they consistently cut down their opposite numbers well before the advantage line.
And with the IRB at last copying the Super Rugby bonus system of a point for four tries and a point for losing within seven, England secured a precious bonus point for their four tries.
But one of them was a questionable penalty try, with England finally securing their fourth from benchman Billy Vunipola well after the final hooter.
Those are pretty ordinary stats when England owned 58 per cent possession, and 65 per cent territory.
And if the Fijians had a decent goal-kicker, it would have been 18-17 to England with 20 minutes left on the clock, instead of 18-5.
That would have been a totally different ball-game.
Two other players demand special mention, too.
Nadolo, at 196 centimetres, and 129 kilograms, brings back vivid memories of former All Black winger Jonah Lomu and the devastation he created during his stellar career.
Nadolo has scored nine tries in his last nine internationals and he will score many more if Fijian fly-half Ben Volavola doesn’t aimlessly kick so much.
To be fair to Volavola, with England’s backs offside so much, he was forced to kick on many occasions. If that happens again in this tournament, Volavola needs to make his kicks mean something, instead of just giving away possession.
But Nadolo looms as an excitement machine. His fan-base will grow by the game.
The second player worthy of mention is rugby league convert Sam Burgess, now a dual international.
He came off the bench at the 60-minute mark as inside centre, a far cry from his league days as a prop leading South Sydney to premiership honours last season.
Burgess only handled three times, but twice he expertly managed to unload to support, even though he was being hammered and covered by the Fijian defence.
So three games of 48 are in the bag with Georgia upsetting Tonga 17-10 and Ireland crushing Canada 29-0.
Early Thursday morning AEST, the Wallabies open their campaign against the Fijians. Coach Michael Cheika will name his squad tomorrow.