England outmuscle hapless Fiji

Paul Anderson bursts through the Fijian defence

England 66-10 Fiji

England ran riot against a hapless Fijian side to romp into the quarter-finals of the Lincoln World Cup.

In a clincial performance, England scored 12 tries to overwhelm Fiji at Headingley.

The English forwards set the platform for the backs to shine as the Fijians struggled to contain the hosts.

Second rower Jamie Peacock grabbed a hat-trick and captain Andy Farrell kicked nine goals and try for a match haul of 22 points in a convincing display.

Outmuscled by the bigger English pack the Fijians tackled themselves to a standstill but had no answer to England's power.

Forced to defend

When Fiji did have the ball they posed some problems with good handling, but they were forced to defend for the majority of the match.

England wasted no time in opening the scoring with Andy Hay crossing after four minutes.

The second rower fended off a would-be tackler before coasting in from 20 metres out.

Stand-off Sean Long sparked the second to create space before firing a pass to winger Paul Wellens.

Conversion

Wellens turned his marker inside out to score in the corner and with Andy Farrell's conversion from the sideline England led 12-0 after 10 minutes.

Long was again the creator to put Peacock free and he wrong-footed the defence to score as England kept up the point-a-minute tempo.

Just when England looked likely to run away with the match Fiji scored after their first real attack of the match.

Stuart Fielden charges through

Stuart Spruce failed to hold onto a Waisale Sovatabua grubber kick and Lote Tuqiri slipped the ball to centre Eperama Navale who crashed through Long's tackle.

Any hopes Fiji had of a comeback were dashed after 25 minutes when Wellens climbed high to claim a bomb ahead of Navale.

His inside pass found centre Scott Naylor who burst through two tackles to delight the Headingley crowd.

On the half-hour mark hooker Tony Smith darted from dummy half to breach the defence before floating a high pass to centre Kris Radlinksi who plucked the ball from over his head to but England 28-4.

Unchallenged

Their sixth try in the half came from a simple move which released debutant Darren Rogers who went in unchallenged.

Just before the break Peacock crosssed for his second as the tiring Fijians started falling off tackles.

Wellens grabbed his second shortly after the break, picking up a pass from around his bootlaces to score in the corner.

Rogers and Smith crossed for their second tries in quick succession before Farrell dummied his way over.

Fiji battled gamely and continued to tackle after the break and received perhaps the biggest cheer of the day when Tuqiiri crossed under the posts for Fiji's second try seven minutes from time.

He was on the end of break by half-back Kalaveti Tuiyabayaba as the Fijians staged a late rally. But it was too little too late.

Peacock got his hat-trick two minutes later running in unchallenged to ram home their superiority.