England 22-30 Fiji: Steve Borthwick’s side lose to Pacific Islanders for the first time ever as disastrous World Cup preparations continue

The old order was blown apart under thunder and lightning. England, one of the sport’s traditional heavyweights, suffered their first-ever defeat to Fiji in a game that rocked the rugby world.

History was made. England was humiliated. They have become a joke and travel to the World Cup as the butt of the jokes. This should have been their farewell party, but most England fans will be thinking “goodbye and good bye” as their team leaves for France for a few weeks.

‘Fiji! Fiji! Fiji! sang the northeast corner, waving their sodden flags of delight and disbelief. The kings of chaos reigned supreme, but what about England? They have reached their nadir. This is the worst England team we’ve seen in years. Every drop of joy has been squeezed out of their game. It was like seeing men against robots and humanity winning.

There are quality players in this England team, but they stink. The game plan failed. The coaches must be held accountable. It consists entirely of the group that worked together in Leicester and there is no diversity in thinking. The attack looks like something from the Stone Age and the defense is non existent. At times it seemed as if Fiji was running on crash test dummies.

Argentina will lick their lips for the opening match of the World Cup. Even taking into account the ridiculously lopsided World Cup draw, they look like a team with no hope and no direction.

England suffered their first ever defeat to Fiji in what should have been their farewell party

Three tries in the second half helped Fiji to a historic victory ahead of the upcoming World Cup

A late goal from Simione Kuruvoli sealed the result for the visitors on a historic day for the country

All the early cohesion of England was washed away by the rain. They started the game by launching Ollie Lawrence and Manu Tuilagi, but as usual, the game ended with the ball flipped.

George Ford found his range with an early three-pointer and in the 10th minute, more than six hours after a back last scored a try, Jonny May went over the left wing. Ford and Freddie Steward drifted to the left of a scrum to create an overlap and May wasted no time on his comeback to end the drought.

If there was one image that summed up that faraway English rugby has fallen, it was the image of the entire top tier shutting down for England’s farewell party. The fans vote with their feet. There were over 80,000 supporters for Friday’s humdinger between the All Blacks and South Africa, but here it was just 56,000. Eight England players had thousands of seats to themselves and watched from above as England fell into the eye of the storm.

They kicked and kicked, spilling balls as they struggled to throw a blanket over the Kings of Chaos. Theo Dan misjudged a couple of lineouts and Caleb Muntz pulled three points back after England went offside.

There were warning signs from Fiji. Semi Radradra bounced off defenders and England breathed a sigh of relief when Waisea Nayacalevu’s attempt was disallowed for a forward pass.

“That’s terribly dangerous,” protested one of the England players after Ellis Genge was brought down on the tackle, but England struggled to capitalize on the penalty kick tally. Prop Eroni Mawi was convicted of collapsing a maul but with a man advantage England failed to execute in the 22.

England collapsed after the break in front of just 56,000 fans at Twickenham

With Mawi still in the trash, Fiji took the lead. Freddie Steward made a fumble kick and then cut the ball out. Fiji was easily assigned territory and they took advantage of it. Attacking from a standing start, Radradra made a daring pass wide into space, allowing Selestino Ravutaumada to step Jonny May and leave him in the dust. Waisea Nayacalevu cut a line off his shoulder to take the lead.

England returned in the Fijian 22, only to be knocked off again, with Ford’s grappling kick shot down.

And with 53 minutes left on the clock, the Islanders struck again. With Ben Earl standing like a statue at the side of the ruck, Vinaya Habosi picked up the ball and charged towards it. No one could overtake him and suddenly England were eleven points behind.

Marcus Smith came on at fullback and seconds later watched Muntz kick the visitors further forward after May’s fumble was doubled by a bad luck penalty.

Smith collected a chip kick from Ford to score, but even with a stroke of luck after appearing offside, England were unable to capitalize.

Steve Borthwick’s England were defeated in the farewell ahead of the World Cup in France

Alex Mitchell was penalized for a high tackle and Fiji scored another three.

Ben Earl knocked on a Crossfield kick, but Joe Marchant scored wide to reduce the deficit. It was about time for the senior England players to take responsibility, but they went missing.

Danny Care dropped the most basic balls, before England missed the ball with a free kick. Fiji stormed back. They threw a long pass to Ravutaumada, who was held just short, but his charge found Simione Kuruvoli who scored the winning try.

Fiji was in dreamland, England was in the darkest depths of a nightmare.