Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Returning pair boost Ed’s squad
BILLY VUNIPOLA and Maro Itoje are back in action for Saracens at Wasps tomorrow (3pm) in a massive boost for England boss Eddie Jones.
No8 Vunipola missed the autumn internationals and has not played since injuring his knee against Sale in September.
Lock Itoje broke his jaw against Harlequins on December 3 and missed Sarries’ European games against Clermont.
They attended England training in Brighton and were given the green light for this week after a club session on Wednesday.
With Vunipola out the European champions went on a run of seven straight losses but have steadied the ship with wins against Leicester and Worcester. They are still second in the Premiership and alive in the Champions Cup but face Wasps and Euro clashes with Scarlets and Northampton that could define their season.
Get through those and Vunipola, Itoje, Nick Isiekwe, Owen Farrell and possibly Alex Lozowski will be called up by Jones for the Six Nations while wing Liam Williams is needed by Wales.
That will test the strength of the Londoners but they have plenty more where they came from according to veteran South African flanker Schalk Burger.
Jackson Wray has put in a shift at No8 with Vunipola away while kids such as Ben Earl and Joel Conlon will be expected to step up.
Burger said: “We are a tight-knit group so, when you have a changing of the guard, those guys will be comfortable playing with us – they train with us every day.”