England needing Billy on the ball
EDDIE JONES rules England with an Australian rod of iron but the returning Billy Vunipola has revealed his summer tour hopes were nearly scuppered by an Aussie Rules ball.
The Saracens No8 has had enough injuries in the past couple of years to fill a series of Casualty, and those ailments have limited him to just 62 minutes of Test rugby since November 2016.
Vunipola’s litany of lay-offs includes knee and shoulder troubles, a broken arm and, more recently, a hamstring strain. To top it off he aggravated the hamstring in training when he was kicking a heavyweight AFL ball.
Those injury woes meant Vunipola missed all but the final game of the 2017 Six Nations, the Lions tour to New Zealand, the autumn internationals and this year’s Six Nations when the Jones bandwagon hit the buffers.
The 25-year-old flies to South Africa today ahead of England’s three-Test series against the Springboks having played 59 minutes in last Saturday’s Premiership final against Exeter even though he did not do a stroke in training before that game.
But Vunipola insists he will be fully fit and firing for the first game against the Boks at Ellis Park in Johannesburg a week today, despite fooling around with a different oval ball.
“After this week I think I’ll be back to full fitness,” said Vunipola. “It was my fault, I was doing some AFL kicking and then my hammy went tight.
“I didn’t tell the coaches that, but when I came off at half-time against Wasps in the Premiership semi-final I told them. I was like, ‘Sorry, guys, I was doing AFL kicking’. I stitched myself up there.
“Now I feel strong again. I had a really good start to the week. Hopefully next week I’ll train fully and I’ll be fine.
“They are just managing my load at the moment. Because I went from not training last week to playing it would be quite a drastic move if I went from not training all week to full training. I have been on a bit of a tough run and hopefully I am on my way back to full fitness.
“It is tough when you are not playing because when you come back you face
NOVEMBER MARCH 2017 MAY 2017 SEPT 2017 JAN 2018
people who have played a lot of games and are almost bullet-proof and you are trying to find your feet.” England will need Vunipola in full metal jacket mode if they are to down the Springboks in an away Test series for the first time. Even Martin Johnson’s great side could only draw 1-1 while the last England team to win at Ellis Park pitched up in 1972. The Boks are re-energised under new coach Rassie Erasmus and have relaxed their rules on picking overseasbased players, meaning Premiership regulars Willie le Roux and Faf de Klerk are set to feature for the hosts. England are heading south on the back of a dismal Six Nations when they finished fifth, having won the title in the previous two years while compiling an 18-match winning streak. But Vunipola believes that setback could be the kick that England need as they head to next year’s World Cup in Japan. He said: “It’s a great point for us now to move forward, knowing that we always have to stay on it. And when we are not on it we know what can happen. “So it is good that we are in a humble position and hopefully we can stay humble now up until the end of the World Cup. “It is a good thing that we have gone through this tough period because it gives us a starting point now to move forward. We are almost trying to prove ourselves again. You probably think you are untouchable and we are not. “Hopefully, we can come together as a team on and off the pitch and really take this tour by the scruff of the neck.”