Ellis Genge praised Fiji as a team “full of mavericks” after England battled their way to a 38-18 victory at Twickenham.
Despite eventually running out as comfortable winners, a much-changed England side were given a scare by the Pacific Islanders, who took the lead midway through the first half before falling foul of a TMO review as they threatened to reel England back in after the restart.
Genge, who stood in as captain with Maro Itoje named on the bench, admitted that it was a tough battle, and remarked that Fiji’s world ranking - they are the lowest-ranked team England face this autumn - did not reflect their strength.
“They are a high offload team,” Genge said post-match.
“I thought we did well to get back behind the ball when they made line breaks. They are a team that are full of absolute mavericks and got lightning bolts from anywhere.
“I play with Kalaveti Ravouvou and [Viliame] ‘Bill’ Mata every week, they are incredible players.
“I think that sometimes we get a little bit misled by the fact that Fiji don't necessarily rank too high up in the rankings, but the players and their team are absolutely amazing.
“For us to do what we did in the first half, I thought we did well to keep them within that sort of score.”
Genge scored England’s third try of the evening, and while the visitors hit back almost instantly, the Bristol Bears prop said England, spurred on by the strength of their bench, always believed that they could pull away for a ninth win in a row.
“There's always belief irrespective of if we win or not,” Genge continued.
“I think we went through a bit of a tough period, I cast my mind back a year or so, and obviously everyone from the outside, the walls closed in a little bit, but the belief has always been there in the squad.
“Obviously for us, internally, we plan for this, you plan to win games, [it] doesn’t always go that way. It can be the toss of a coin sometimes, but we are over the moon to have won nine in a row, but it gets very tough next week against New Zealand, who are one of the best sides in the world, so we look forward to that.”
