England can take confidence into Wales clash, says Saints star Courtney

Stuart Lancaster’s men secured a bonus-point 35-11 victory at Twickenham on Friday night, with Billy Vunipola grabbing the crucial fourth try in the final play of the game.

It was good start to the tournament, but the Fijians did pose plenty of problems, especially just before and just after the break.

Lawes, who started the game, knows England have got plenty of improving to do ahead of Saturday’s crunch clash with Wales at Twickenham.

But the Saints star feels he and his team-mates have gained belief from seeing off the silky Fijians.

“Fiji were a very, very good team,” Lawes said.

“It was a disrupted game but considering it wasn’t our kind of game and not everything went our way, we did really well to get the win and the bonus point.

“We got a good win and overcame a bit of adversity so we can take a lot of confidence from that.

“Hopefully next week we can influence the game a bit more and take our game plan to them better than we did this week.”

England could have been forgiven for being slightly nervous in front of an expectant home crowd.

And Lawes said: “It was a bit nervous out there and we had everything to lose.

“Games like the one on Friday are potential banana skins and Fiji came out to play their game, chuck it about and it worked at times.

“On the whole, we did really well.

“If you come away from a game like that with five points, you can’t be too unhappy.

“We are a lot better at managing the game than we showed on Friday.

“We knocked a lot of ball on and gave them far more possession than we wanted to.

“We’ve got lots to correct, but it’s not a bad start.”