England vs Fiji Betting Tips: Tight contest at Twickenham expected
After copping his main bet of Ireland -15 against England last week, Billy Grimshaw is back with another preview of England’s last World Cup warm-up match. The Red Rose host Fiji at Twickenham and while they are favourites and should get the job done, a confidence boosting big win would be manna from heaven. Our man isn’t convinced they have it in them just yet, however, and has a couple of recommended bets…
England look nothing like World Cup contenders at the moment. Sloppy at the breakdown, clunky with the ball and weak in defence, Steve Borthwick has seemingly picked up where the sacked Eddie Jones left off in terms of managing a side low on confidence and confused as to what it is supposed to look like.
Fiji are 150/1 outsiders for glory in France and advancing to the knockout stages would be seen as a success for the tiny island, but they are no mugs and having never beaten the Red Rose will see this as a perfect opportunity to inflict the upset. While I think England will just about have enough, I’m keen to back the Fijians in side markets in what could be a hostile atmosphere in front of an expectant and disgruntled home crowd.
England vs Fiji Tips
Last time out the Fijians faced a much more daunting prospect than England in heading to Nantes to take on World Cup hosts and real contenders for the trophy France in a tune up game. Although the French weren’t at full strength their side would still have made lightwork of the England of 2023 and for Fiji to only lose out 34-17 in the end was a credible outcome.
Fiji have for some time been reliant on their blockbuster front five and that didn’t change against France last weekend, with their star men laying a decent platform to cover their weaknesses and really taking the game to France. If they can do the same again to England, particularly starting fast, they could have some joy in beginning the game with the advantage.
England have not just been slow starters recently, they have been slow for the entirety of their games. Fiji will look to capitalise on this and fly out of the traps, scoring first would be big and could see the aforementioned Twickenham crowd become at best apathetic and at worst frustrated. The defending has been a concern for over a year now and against a Fiji side that love to offload, missed or half made tackles will have consequences.
Fiji probably won’t quite have enough to win the game but I am more than willing to side with them on the handicaps and think this game could well be in the balance heading into the final stages. If it is your style of betting I couldn’t put you off a small win play on the Fijians simply in response to how clunky and demoralised England look, but for tipping purposes my main bet here is to have the visitors onside in the handicap market. I was also tempted by Fiji/England in the Half Time Full Time market and will be throwing a few pennies on that at 6/1 with Betfred.
Semi Radradra Anytime Try Scorer
As a follower of both codes of rugby I was incredibly excited when Semi Radradra switched to the fifteen a side game to join Bristol Bears and the former NRL star has taken to his new discipline like a duck to water. Playing inside centre here he will come up against Manu Tuilagi and although Tuilagi is a bonafide legend he has looked past his prime for a while now and Radradra could well get the better of him.
I actually prefer Radradra at outside centre as he has more space to weave his magic in, but at least starting 12 means he should see more of the ball than usual and if he can generate his own gaps good luck to the Englishmen trying to catch him.
As mentioned in the handicap, tip Fiji love to chuck the ball around and with England’s defence looking leaky there could be ample opportunity for league convert Radradra to follow up his barnstorming forwards as they charge at the defence in the hope of being in the slipstream ready to collect any offloads and race away to score. At 9/4 he looks a fair bet to cross the whitewash, and is worth backing in the first, last and anytime markets.
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