Being the first two teams to qualify for the quarter-finals is an impressive achievement when you think where they were
s recently as a few months ago you would have got long odds on England and Wales becoming the first two teams to qualify for the quarter-finals of the World Cup. By this stage it should go without saying that they are in the kinder side of the draw, but for both teams it is an impressive achievement when you measure it against where they have come from this year.
Samoa will give them a well-timed warm-up for what is shaping up to be a quarter-final against Fiji. Make no mistake, Fiji are streets ahead of Samoa in terms of their development but England will encounter a similar level of physicality in both matches. What has struck me about Fiji is how impressive their exit strategy has been. That pragmatism, allied with their power and their individual brilliance, goes a long way to explaining why they find themselves in the position they are now in.
The understanding and execution of their gameplan is of huge credit to the team of coaches – there is a total buy-in. You can see from their energy, their fitness, the scrum has become a weapon and there’s some attacking flair. They’re looking good and I fully expect them to reach a semi-final.Photograph: Alex Livesey/Getty Images
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