England have opened their 2015 Rugby World Cup campaign with a 35-11 win over Fiji at Twickenham after Mike Brown scored two tries for the host nation.
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George Ford got the opening points of the tournament on the board just a couple of minutes after kickoff as the home side benefited from a handling error by Ben Volavola, allowing England to force a penalty from the resulting scrum.
The Fiji fly-half could have levelled the score shortly after as the Pacific Islanders were awarded a penalty of their own, but his attempt at the uprights clipped the outside of the left post.
The host nation extended their lead midway through the opening period when Dominiko Waqaniburotu gave away a penalty for a tackle on Jonny May, allowing England to surge towards the try line, eventually forcing a penalty try when Nikola Matawalu illegally blocked the charge to earn himself 10 minutes in the sin bin.
England continued to dominate, with Brown diving over after Jonathan Joseph found him with a pass out wide, but Fiji started to see more of the ball once back up to 15 men.
Matawalu tried to make amends for his earlier yellow card with a pacy run down the right, but the scrum-half lost control of the ball as he dived for the line, forcing the referee to wipe off his score.
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However, Nemani Nadolo finally got Fiji off the mark half an hour into the contest, collecting a kick forward from Volavola before dodging a tackle from Anthony Watson, leaving him to leap across, while both sides added a further three points from penalties before the interval.
Fiji looked stronger at the start of the second half, slowing England down as Stuart Lancaster's side pushed for a third try, before cutting the cap to seven points when Volavola added the first points of the second half from a penalty with just 15 minutes remaining.
Owen Farrell came off the bench to restore England's 10-point advantage, before Brown added his second try of the evening following a pass from Farrell to May, who set up the full-back to power over out wide.
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Knowing that a fourth try would give them a bonus point, England were quickly on the attack again, with Brown just being halted as he tried to break for a hat-trick.
Brown powered towards the line again with just a couple of minutes remaining before passing to Farrell, but a string of quick passes from right to left failed to result in the elusive fourth try for the 2003 champions.
There was just time for one final push towards the line though, with Sam Burgess offloading to Brown, before the ball popped up to Billy Vunipola, leaving the second-half replacement to surge across the line despite Matawalu's attempts to hold him up.
Sian Cowper
