HONEST TO GOODNESS
Vunipola lifts lid on no-holds-barred ‘truth sessions’ that brought squad closer after debacle of Calcutta Cup
BILLYVUNIPOLA has opened up on the honesty session which led to “handbags” in the England squad but welded them into World Cup contenders.
A frustrated Eddie Jones called in Australian psychologist Corinne Reid after Scotland reeled in a 31-point deficit during the Six Nations to draw the Calcutta Cup match.
The England head coach felt cracks exposed in that game showed England were still carrying the baggage of the disastrous 2015
World Cup campaign.
Vunipola revealed yesterday how, at a training camp in July, the players were asked by Reid to pour out their feelings about that failure – and each other – in a savage and emotional meeting which bruised egos but ended up tightening the squad.
Vunipola said: “Probably the biggest thing we needed to improve was how together we can be.
“Every other team says they are doing it, but being brutally honest can hurt feelings. Being within the confines of England rugby, a lot of us are precious.When you’re at your club, you’re the main man, but when you’re with England you’re just the next person.
“There were a few handbags thrown around but it was really good.
“She just gave us the platform to do it. It’s hard – men don’t know how to talk about their feelings.
“It took us a while but we got there in the end. It was something that was very important to us and has probably freed us up a lot in terms of our relationships.
“Just listening to each other, and caring about another person’s opinion and taking it on board, rather than going back to your room and having a little moan to your mate. Everything that we feel or think, just put it out to the group. “There are always mishaps but we have had better tools to deal with it this time.” The willingness to deal directly with issues has led to more face-to-face criticism of each other at this tournament. An example was the spat between Henry Slade and Elliot Daly after they blew a chance for a try against Tonga. ButVunipola feels that, because of the stronger bonds in the team, there are no lingering issues afterwards.
“This is the first (England) team that is willing to go deeper than just say: ‘I think you should have hit this ruck.’ We have got down to it. And it has been good,” he said.
“We’ve talked about things that we’ve never been able to put out there, as a group, and it’s brought us closer together. There is a lot more respect in that changing room.”
So does that mean the memories of 2015 have gone? Hardly. It is the one of the primary motivations behind England’s assault on this World Cup.
Vunipola added: “2015 was massive because we went in with huge expectations on us and we didn’t deliver.You have been hurt before and you don’t want to be like that again. That’s driving us on.
“It is still vivid in my mind. It is not something I enjoyed.With our destiny in our own hands still, we have to put down a marker, not for anyone else but for ourselves as a team.
“It’s an opportunity more than anything to right a few wrongs. A lot of us are excited.
“With this team when there is a big challenge now, we turn up.”