Heads historically roll in France, the home of the guillotine, and there’s going to be some big names fearing the chop if England fail to reach the Rugby World Cup semi-finals in Marseille on Sunday.
Steve Borthwick’s side – who could face France or South Africa in the semis – are nowhere near the standards set when England were runners-up to the Springboks four years ago in Japan and, if we are being honest, they are playing some of the dullest rugby in the tournament.
True they had already qualified for the knockout stages, but Saturday’s close shave against Samoa did little to suggest they are a confident, cohesive unit willing to grasp the nettle.
A late Danny Care try followed by a match-saving tackle from the Harlequins scrum-half secured an extremely tight 18-17 victory and with so many basic errors blotting the copybook there’s tonnes of work required in training this week if the Flying Fijians are to be eliminated.
The Pacific Islanders also limped into the last eight, despite losing arguably the most entertaining match of the tournament so far when they were beaten 24-23 by Portugal.
Fiji’s losing bonus point was enough to eliminate Australia and ruin the chance of a classic storyline which would have pitted Wallabies coach Eddie Jones against the England team he managed to mess up during the final stages of his time in charge.
The pressure told against Portugal but Fiji just about did the job and are at their best when they are underdogs with nothing to lose.
They are more likely to be the XV which thrilled in a narrow defeat to Wales in their Pool C opener before defeating the Wallabies and morale will be considerably boosted by memories of their historic 30-22 victory over a ragged England at Twickenham in August.
Fiji fritter away a large amount of penalties giving Owen Farrell or George Ford the opportunity to kick Borthwick’s blunderers to victory.
But England are nowhere near the 2/5 favourites chalked up by numerous bookmakers for this encounter and Fiji are worth a punt at 23/10 with Betfair to register a seismic victory which will spark a revolution in English rugby.
Wales are rounding into form at the right time and can dispose of inconsistent Argentina to reach the semi-finals. Warren Gatland has done a fine job improving the Dragons and they are 6/4 with Betway to beat the Pumas by more than a converted try in Marseille on Saturday.
• Saud Shakeel can demolish the Sri Lanka bowling if he maintains the dashing form which saw him hit 68 runs off 52 balls in Pakistan’s Cricket World Cup victory over Netherlands. He is 17/1 to be the top batter in Tuesday’s match in Hyderabad.
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