England star tasered in Majorca incident

BILLY VUNIPOLA’S career was plunged into doubt yesterday as he flew home from a Saracens trip to Majorca after being tasered by police for resisting arrest and assaulting an officer. The 31-year-old England No 8 arrived at Stansted Airport with team-mates amid a club investigation into the events which led to him being tasered twice in a bar in Palma in the early hours of Sunday.

A drunk, shirtless Vunipola was restrained and taken to hospital, where he had to be strapped to a bed. He went on to face an ‘express’ trial in court, where he was fined 240 Euros (£205) and handed a suspended four-month prison sentence.

As revealed by Mail Sport yesterday, the younger of Saracens’ two Vunipola brothers had been teetotal since August 2022, until his club’s Balearic bonding trip. Vunipola fell off the wagon to such a damaging extent that his playing future is now unclear.

The Premiership champions must decide if the ugly episode requires further internal action to be taken. So far, all Saracens have stated publicly is that they will make their own enquiries and will not comment further until those have been concluded. The danger to Vunipola is that he could be suspended, although such a sanction is unlikely.

Alternatively, he may be marginalised by his club before a planned move to Montpellier at the end of the season.

It remains to be seen if the French club change their minds about recruiting the Anglo-Tongan giant this summer.

Mail Sport understands they are monitoring the fall-out from the Majorca incident. As it stands, the deal is on and Vunipola will go over for a medical next month.

The player said in a statement yesterday: ‘I can confirm I was involved in an unfortunate misunderstanding when I was leaving a club in Majorca on Sunday, which got out of hand.

‘Contrary to media reports, there was no violence, no fight and I did not threaten anybody at any stage, with bottles or chairs or anything else.

‘I was charged with resisting the law and, following an express trial, I have paid a fine of 240 Euros. The Spanish police investigation is now closed and I am flying back to the UK today.

‘I will obviously cooperate with the Saracens internal process and unreservedly apologise for any inconvenience to all involved.’