10 October 2023 , 21:00
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Billy Vunipola heads into the World Cup quarter-finals admitting no-one likes England and they don’t care.
Steve Borthwick’s team face a Fiji side carrying the hopes not only of the Pacific Islands but every neutral in France and beyond. England were booed in their opening game against Argentina and heard even their own fans chant 'allez les Bleus’ in support of opponents Samoa last weekend.
After training in Aix, 25 miles north of Marseille where Sunday’s game will be played, it was put to Vunipola that Fiji are everyone’s second team and England will be seen as the bad guys.
“I would not say Fiji is their second favourite team, I would say England is their first least favourite,” he replied. “In terms of being public enemy number one, we are happy to take that mantle.”
Historically, that is a cross England have to bear when up against nations from the commonwealth or what was once the British Empire.
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“But as soon as the whistle goes it kind of blocks out,” Tom Curry said of the crowd’s animosity. I think we had it first game against Argentina, the booing and stuff. But you looked around and lads were smiling.
“It’s an exciting time. Whether people like you or they don’t, it doesn’t matter. It’s a quarter-final of the World Cup. Where else would you rather be? As long as you’ve got your family and friends behind you, which I hope they are.. No, I KNOW they are!”
England have enough to put right on the pitch without worrying about what is happening off it. But Vunipola made clear he is well aware of the outside noise.
England just scraped past Samoa last time out (PA)“We are seeing a lot of teams being talked up,” he said. “There’s a top four apparently in international rugby. I didn’t know that there was a table.”
Actually, there is, it is called the official world rankings and it shows the quarter-finalists in the top half of the draw to be the four leading nations in the sport.
It is quite legitimate to point out that England are in the easier half and will never have a better chance to reach the semi-finals given their opponents are the lowest (10th), in terms of ranking, left.
Where Fiji do pose a world-leading threat, however, is at the breakdown in the form of La Rochelle turnover king Levani Botia. Borthwick has taken the unusual step of highlighting that Fiji “contest the ball on the floor at virtually every breakdown” and says he will talk to ref Mathieu Raynal to see what is permissible, having been left “confused” by the way his side were reffed against Samoa.
“We need to understand just exactly how that is going to be officiated,” he stressed. It did not help that England had the second slowest ruck speed in the pool stages and Curry, sent off the last time Raynal took charge of them, acknowledges he has work cut out against Botia.
“He is brilliant in terms of making decisions,” said the Sale star. “Brilliant at what he does. He is strong and if he gets over that ball he is hard to move. In terms of our attack, our speed and our physicality is going to have to be up there.”