LONDON -- If you thought this was going to be a comfortable early evening stroll for England against Fiji, one match where they could road test new combinations and warm up for the All Blacks, then you judged this horribly wrong. England came through 38-18 to make it two from two this autumn, but Fiji tested them in any and every manner possible.
In fact, ex-England prop and Celebrity Traitors faithful Joe Marler called it perfectly. England led by a point at the break, and it was all a little uneasy.
After 32 minutes as "Sweet, Caroline" boomed out, and the 78,678-strong crowd sang along proclaiming good times never seemed so good, but the camera panned to the England coaching box to tell a different story: Borthwick looked tense, his side were six points down on the scoreboard.
Luke Cowan-Dickie's score after seven minutes had been cancelled out by one from hooker Tevita Ikanivere, where they bulldozed England's lineout, and another by Caleb Muntz who crafted a wonderful, sweeping move to splinter the hosts' resolve.
Immanuel Feyi-Waboso gave England a half-time lead with a thoroughly deserved try but it was all a little tense. "It's not quite how I expected it to go," Marler said, while being interviewed at half time fresh from his star turn in the reality TV show. "But look, Steve will make a couple of changes, and we'll all leave here buzzing with an England win."
Fiji were offering a far sterner test than Australia did a week ago. They were defensively sound, and wonderfully varied in attack.
England were being made to work incredibly hard for their ninth victory in a row. But they had that point lead at the break, and they had the fully-loaded bench. They don't want to call their arsenal of options on the bench the "bomb squad" like the Boks do, and are searching for their own English equivalent, but as the three replacement front-rowers lined up in the 50th minute, alongside Tom Curry and Henry Pollock, they woke Twickenham from its slumber and helped steer England home.
It was back to a three-point match at this stage after Ellis Genge scored, and Ikanivere exposed England's lineout again, but after Simione Kuruvoli's try was ruled out for a knock-on, further substitutes gave England a firmer foothold and it was Henry Arundell's first and second touch which gave the hosts breathing room with a superb score in the 69th minute and then Maro Itoje -- their final replacement -- sealed things off, just as Marler predicted.
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England scored a total of six tries, one short of the number of changes Borthwick made from their 25-7 Australia win. Marcus Smith was at fullback, Tommy Freeman shifted from No.13 to No.14, Ollie Lawrence back in midfield, Fin Smith restored at fly-half, Ellis Genge back at loose-head, Luke Cowan-Dickie at hooker, Alex Coles given a shot in the second-row, Ben Earl shifted to openside, and Chander Cunningham-South at No.8.
Previous England sides have seen progress stunted by such shifting, but not this group. But this performance did little to appease those who believe Marcus Smith should be left to continue displaying his incredible skillset solely at fly-half. He looks far more at home at fly-half than he does fullback.
Versatility is a wonderful tool -- and increasingly in this new-age of 'hybrid' players, it remains king -- but he is not the long-term answer at fullback.
But it's testament to Fiji that we didn't see Ben Earl in the centres. There's only so much room for manoeuvres against a team this dangerous. "That's one of the hardest Test matches I've played," Earl said afterwards.
For England, though, they'll take this. Fin Smith did well at fly-half on his return there after George Ford got the keys to No.10 last week, while Earl was outstanding at openside -- it was his tackle that caused Kuruvoli to knock the ball on with the try line gaping in the 62nd minute.
Elsewhere, Feyi-Waboso was a frequent ball of dangerous energy on the wing and thoroughly deserved his score. And Borthwick would've greatly admired the way Arundell chased down Marcus Smith's grubber to grab their fifth score.
At full-time the stadium announcer described this as a "routine victory." It was anything but. Fiji tested England in ways Australia couldn't, and this was the perfect way to get ready for the All Blacks when they come to town next week.
In basic stats, England are now at nine wins in a row. That's immense progress. They made a slew of changes and still won. That's another step forward.
Now comes the best chance they've had in recent times to end a 13-year wait to beat the All Blacks on Twickenham soil.