GALLAGHER PREMIERSHIP BILLY DON’T BE A HERO

Vunipola vows to play it safe as he admits self-imposed heroics made him vulnerable to serious injury

BILLY VUNIPOLA says he will not play the hero any more as he bids to end two years of injury hell.

The England No.8 starts his first game for Saracens today since breaking an arm for the second time in five months on international duty in June.

In two years he has been restricted to six Test starts. Last season he managed just seven club appearances because of shoulder, knee and arm injuries.

“I got to a stage where I was just trying to be a hero, putting myself in situations where I was vulnerable,” he admitted. “There’s 14 other players out on the pitch. I need to pick my moments.”

Vunipola vows to play “smarter and safer” in the year leading up to the World Cup and has pledged to wear a cushioned arm protector to build “proper” strength in his arm.

Last time round he used it once, then binned it. It was a mistake. Against South Africa he refractured the arm.

“I’ve learned my lesson,” he said. “Not wearing it wasn’t the smartest decision.”

That is not his only regret. Five months before, he pushed to start in his comeback game, “almost like I was trying to show them I am tough, when I wasn’t”.

Days later, trying too hard to “impact the game and be a hero”, he broke his arm.

“I was showing a mask that wasn’t me,” he said. “Now I’m up front with everything – if I’m sore I’m sore – not letting my ego dictate.”

Vunipola, 25, is one of the world’s best, yet battles self-doubt as much as anyone else.

Missing Lions tours and Six Nations campaigns genuinely left him worrying that coaches and players would think “I’m taking them for a ride”.

To such an extent that when booked for a corporate appearance at Twickenham before an England-australia Test, he did it and then jumped in a cab without staying for the match.

“I felt embarrassed, thinking people would be, ‘Oh, this guy is living off two years of his work’,” he revealed. His most recent lay-off has brought more rational thought and means a different Vunipola will be on show at Northampton, where a strain, described as minor, sidelines Owen

Farrell.

“It’s now about using my potential threat to divert defenders away,” he said. “As rugby players we need to get smarter, not bigger.”

PAIN GAME No one could doubt Vunipola’s courage – breaking the same arm twice