Grant Nisbett: Should the English be nervous?

Fiji rugby team players huddle during a training session at Twickenham Stadium. Photo / AP

Opinion

The eighth Rugby World Cup kicks off at Twickenham on Saturday morning New Zealand time with the host nation, England, up against Fiji.

The opening game is a tricky one for England and it's fair to say that here in London there are plenty of normally confident English rugby fans who are more than a tad nervous about the outcome.

Fiji are big, physical, and fast but England should be too strong in the set pieces and way too clinical in general to be severely troubled by the islanders. Nemani Nadolo has shown his incredible qualities in Super Rugby, but England are well aware of his ability and are certain to try and mark him out of the game. Anything other than a comfortable England win would be a major surprise.

The pick of the four games to be played on Saturday here is from Pool D where two of the Six Nations sides, France and Italy, go head-to-head at Twickenham.

France have developed this incredible ability, particularly at World Cups, to turn in a shocker and you only have to go back to 2011 against Tonga, and four years earlier against Argentina, when they lost on the opening night in Paris, to prove the point. Italy is a dangerous opponent and France desperately need to start well because the other significant opponent in that pool is the dangerous Ireland.

The famous Wembley Stadium will be chock full for the All Blacks opener against Argentina on Sunday. This means that the biggest crowd of the entire tournament will be in attendance because Wembley has a greater capacity than both Twickenham and the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff.

This will be the only real test in this pool for Steve Hansen's men and they'll be aware that it'll be close to another month before they line up at the business end of the tournament, a quarter-final knockout match in Cardiff.

The Pumas can't be entirely dismissed, as their recent win over the Springboks in Durban was an indication that they have the ability on any given day to cause problems to the more highly-rated sides. Logic though would suggest that the All Blacks will throw everything at this game and come away with a handsome win.

Grant Nisbett is a TAB rugby expert and SKY TV commentator.