Vunipola’s big chance to pay back Sarries for standing by him
No8 must switch focus to on-field matters as play-off race comes down to final two games
BILLY VUNIPOLA has been granted entry to the last-chance saloon on his English rugby career, cleared for action by both Saracens and the RFU.
The England No8 will no doubt stick to the soft stuff in a bid to end his 11 years at Saracens by propelling the Men In Black to a seventh Gallagher Premiership title.
The 31-year-old can count himself lucky that his arrest for resisting police detainment in Majorca has been met with kid gloves by his rugby bosses.
Now the 75-cap back-rower — and moreover Saracens as a whole — must vindicate the culture of offering “second chances, maybe sometimes even third chances”, in the words of rugby director Mark McCall.
Saracens face Bristol at Ashton Gate tomorrow, in the first of two final regular-season matches. McCall’s men sit second in the table, but the condensed standings mean that Exeter, down in seventh, could yet climb back into the top-four play-off berths.
Saracens have built their north London empire on bucking many of professionalism’s trends, specifically in finding a way to merge values from rugby’s schools of old and new.
Their in-season bonding trips, where relative boozing is accepted but by no means mandatory, are the stuff of legend. Schalk Brits coming back from an evening’s Apres Ski to find roommate Steve Borthwick poring over lineout clips on his laptop still proves instructive on the now-England head coach’s famed work ethic.
A generation of Saracens coaches and players have enjoyed as many as two such trips each season, with no prior fallout.
Vunipola’s nightmare experience in Palma has, though, turned rugby myth into cautionary tale. The Sydney-born powerhouse was arrested in the early hours April 28 at a bar in the Majorcan capital. He was Tasered twice by police, then arrested for resisting restraint.
Vunipola was fined €240 (£205) and handed a four-month suspended sentence on April 29. He has since apologised profusely, even admitting he does not know when to stop when partaking in a rare drinking session.
Saracens are right to stand by their man, while at the same time delivering a stern warning. The incident happened on a club trip, so on one level Saracens must assume some responsibility.
Vunipola has broad enough shoulders to cope with what comes next — but player and club now need to earn the right to the leeway that has been granted.
That means delivering on the field, securing another play-off tilt and the chance to defend their Premiership title at Twickenham. That, in turn, means pulling off a victory at a resurgent Bristol, which would prove no mean feat.
The average man on the street might have lost his job for Vunipola’s conduct. While that would have proved a dereliction of duty, and one Saracens would never countenance, the realworld consequences still matter.
The RFU yesterday issued Vunipola a formal warning, which will sit on his record for five years and be used in any future disciplinary cases. If that represents a de facto suspended sentence, Vunipola’s summer switch to Montpellier renders any threat of future punishment as little more than moot.
In France, Vunipola will be off-limits for England selection, and Red Rose boss Borthwick had already moved on to the likes of Ben Earl for the Six Nations, aware of that impending Montpellier move.
The RFU insists Vunipola’s “actions clearly go against the core values of rugby”, but drinking has forever been synonymous with this sport.
A double standard glossed over by the brevity of Vunipola’s time left in London raises more questions than answers.
Saracens and Vunipola must find some responses tomorrow.
He has broad enough shoulders to cope with what comes next but has to earn the right to the leeway granted