Player ratings

MARTIN Johnson’s first selection in charge of England seemed ideal for a Sevens tournament played in somewhere like subtropical Queensland. However, on a wet, dark and atmosphere-free afternoon at Twickenham, it only barely passed muster.

This was a first victory of the autumn campaign but unless England can find some power and devil, then it will also be the last victory of the autumn.

There was good news in small areas. Delon Armitage and Ugo Monye played strikingly in the back three, Danny Care had an incisive first-half and Andrew Sheridan was conspicuous in his scrummaging duties and ball carrying. Five tries is not to be sniffed at either, but England are dramatically short of beef, notably in the second row where Steve Borthwick and Nick Kennedy are much of a muchness. They were alarmingly inconspicuous in the back row, where only Tom Rees seemed to be a consistent factor at the breakdown.

The Pacific Islanders have had no time together, some of their defending was awful and yet when they had the ball, they were light years ahead in terms of footballing ability and natural decision making. Seilala Mapusua had a footballing ability in the midfield ahead of any Englishman and Mili Latu, the heroic Island captain, had a marvellous authority.

Unless England can add hard-core forwards in all three rows then they will simply be overpowered by at least two of the three Southern Hemisphere teams lying in wait for them.

Armitage and his back three provided England with a threat that saved them from terminal embarrassment. However, the prospects are clear - England could be made to suffer in so many other phases that this could easily be the last we see of the trio until the New Year.

In terms of skill and variation of play, the Islanders matched England throughout the first half, aided by yet another curiously nonexplosive start. They did score after 15 minutes when Care, influential throughout, made a half-break through the back end of a lineout. Rees provided an effective link and then Cipriani and Riki Flutey sent Armitage on where he drew the defenders, cleverly flipped the ball inside avoiding two Islanders, to find Paul Sackey, who ran on to score.

However, England contrived to make a hash of the Islander kick-off and came under immediate pressure near their own line. Flutey probably should have driven the ball up the field but he lobbed it to the right of Cipriani, and by the time the fly-half had switched back towards his left foot, Seru Rabeni was up to charge down the kick and control the ball cleverly for the try. Pierre Hola’s conversion made it 10-7.

Cipriani did kick a penalty on the half hour after some England scrummage battering which had been followed by some rather mediocre backline attacking, but then the Islanders conceded at a time when they had looked most like scoring themselves.

England lost possession under their own posts and the Pacific Islanders ran it hard. The dangerous Vilimoni Delasau and the eternal Latu made ground and Latu exploded out of a maul, apparently to score. But he was brought back for a forward pass inside.

The Islanders lost the ball in the very next attack and Care boldly set England running. Cipriani found Monye and the splendid Harlequin set off on an heroic run, straight through Delasau and scorching outside the rest of the cover defence where he found Cipriani who treated himself to a swallow dive to score. His excellent conversion made it 20-10 at half-time, but with no sense whatsoever that England were about to devastate.