EMOTIONAL BAGGAGE
Billy feeling lighter after unpacking the. . .
SIX months after Eddie Jones raised concerns about England’s mental frailty by talking about grenades going off in the back of a jeep, Billy Vunipola revealed that they have been liberated by a series of controlled explosions.
The national team’s Six Nations campaign ended in alarming fashion as a 31-0 lead was spectacularly squandered against Scotland at Twickenham. England fell apart to trail 38-31, before a face-saving try by George Ford earned them a draw which did little to paper over the cracks.
Jones recognised that — not for the first time — his side had unravelled under pressure. He sensed that there was mental baggage, that when the heat was on his players locked up, failed to communicate effectively and reverted to established cliques. The head coach realised that this lack of unity and clarity when the stakes were raised could shatter their World Cup ambitions.
‘It’s like we have some grenades in the back of a jeep and sometimes they go off when there’s a lot of pressure,’ he said at the time. ‘We’ve got to get rid of them. It’s 100 per cent mental. It’s going to take some digging deep into the team psyche.’
His response was to recruit psychologists for the summer training camps — first Corinne Reid and later Dr Andrea Furst. Vunipola opened up yesterday about the honesty sessions that the squad had gone through, which were uncomfortable but vital as a means of banishing some demons.
Asked if England had taken steps to address the issues raised by Jones in the aftermath of that draw against Scotland, the Saracens No 8 said: ‘Yep, he has definitely got the baggage out. It was very important to us and has probably freed us up a lot in terms of our relationships. Obviously there were a few bumps in the road but I think we have better tools to deal with it than before.
‘It’s about just listening to each other, 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.’
Jones has been at pains to foster a greater spirit and camaraderie among his players in the last six months — encouraging them to socialise and unwind as a group away from training. But Vunipola explained that the action they have taken goes ‘deeper than that’. It has been about far more than beers and bonding.
This is where the intervention of the psychologists — Reid initially — has been so significant. ‘She just gave us the platform to do it,’ said Billy. ‘It’s really hard but it is a thing — men don’t know how to talk about their feelings. It took us a while but we got there in the end.
‘Being brutally honest can hurt a few feelings. Being within the confines of England rugby, a lot of us are very precious. There were a few handbags thrown around but it was really good.’
The source of much of the baggage for many of these English players was no great surprise. The last World Cup left scars which have not fully healed. Going out after the pool stage of their home tournament was an ordeal that remains a raw memory for those who were involved.
That includes the younger Vunipola brother. He is hell-bent on taking this chance to ‘right a few wrongs’, as he put it. ‘That is still vivid in my mind,’ said the 26-year-old. ‘It’s not something I enjoyed and it’s not something I want to do again.
‘In 2015, we went in with massive expectations on our backs and we didn’t deliver. We know what that feeling is like and we don’t want to feel like that again. That’s driving us on as much as anything else.’
Vunipola has endured more than his fair share of setbacks since that last, ill-fated World Cup campaign. Countless injuries have cruelly punctuated his career, but he is now on a personal roll, having started all 11 Tests that England have played this calendar year. Jones has insisted that the giant at the base of the England scrum functions best when he keeps playing to stay in the groove and the man himself agrees. Now he is striving for peak form.
‘ I’ve played it out in my head a hundred times,’ he said.
‘I remember when I was injured, I missed the Six Nations, the autumn. I was always rushing to get back. This is probably the best shape I have been in for the last two years so to not take advantage of that would be terrible for me.
‘Eddie picks the team and I am happy to be in the team. I haven’t been playing the best in the last two games but that’s the way rugby goes. Eddie said at the start of the tournament: “It’s a marathon not a sprint”, so hopefully I’ll get better every week — if Eddie keeps picking me!’
Jones will certainly pick him again to start the next Pool C fixture, against Argentina here on Saturday. ‘It’s getting serious now,’ said Billy. It is indeed.
But after their controlled explosions, England will hope there are no more grenades left in the back of that jeep.