Billy’s back but Jonny’s banged
BILLY VUNIPOLA gave Eddie Jones a major boost with his match-winning show for Saracens at Harlequins.
The England boss had crossed the road from Twickenham to the Stoop in search of solace after seeing star winger Jonny May crocked while playing for Leicester.
His reward was a masterclass from Vunipola in the 25-year-old’s first full 80 minutes since returning from a broken arm, inspiring a 25-20 win.
Saturday had begun with May damaging his right shoulder helping Leicester beat Northampton 23-15 in a game switched to the national stadium to allow a 40,413 crowd to attend Rob Horne’s fundraiser.
“Jonny got a bang directly on the point of his shoulder,” said Tigers coach Geordan Murphy. “Sometimes they take a few weeks.”
Four hours later, Jones’ concern for his try king, who has scored in England’s last six games, was offset by the sight of the bulldozing Vunipola carrying the ball 28 times in his man-of-the-match display.
The No8 claimed the try that gave Sarries their first win at Quins for four years, and might have had another but for commendably owning up, before even being asked, to knocking on the ball in the act of scoring.
Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall said: “It was good to give Billy 80 minutes. And some of his best stuff actually came in the last 20 minutes, which is really encouraging.”
Lawrence Dallaglio, working as a BT Sport pundit, added: “I’m really impressed with the way Billy took personal responsibility in key moments of the game.”
Sarries set a club record with their 13th successive win. To do it in what is a grudge fixture against their London rivals made it all the sweeter. “There’s a bit of POWER SURGE: No8 Billy Vunipola carries hard for Sarries something extra there that you probably can’t describe,” said Vunipola. “It’s niggle, it’s whatever. It’s something we knew coming into the game would be there. “We dealt with it really well. We stayed in the game and kept our heads.” Asked about his celebration after latching on to Alex Lozowski’s pass to claim the decisive try, he added: “I was just copying what Danny Care did to us [after his score]. “When they do it to us it’s fine, but when we do it it’s not humble. We’re just giving as good as we got.” Credit to Harlequins for pushing the champions all the way despite having only one-third of the possession and having to make 205 tackles to the visitors’ 69.
The evergreen Chris Robshaw led the way with 28, while scrum-half Care showed the benefit of a summer off from England duty with a razor-sharp score from an interception, picking off Ben Spencer’s pass from a lineout.
Quins had the added consolation of scoring the game’s best try when young centre Joe Marchant stunned Sarries by leaping to catch the ball and touch down after Marcus Smith’s wayward penalty kick INJURY WORRY: Jonny May is helped off after hurting his shoulder at goal had been held up in the wind.
Still, McCall maintained: “We deserved to win the game by more probably, they were never in our half.”
Jones was just happy to see Vunipola back to his rip-roaring best ahead of next month’s Test matches, particularly as there was a further injury up at Sale, where Marland Yarde, a contender to replace May if necessary, dislocated his knee as Sharks beat Newcastle 20-7.
“It was just horrendous,” said Sale boss Steve Diamond. “Not nice to see.”
His best stuff came in the last 20 minutes