Sarries are ‘pounding the rock’ in search of greatness, says Vunipola
One ceiling was broken at Murrayfield on Saturday night but there are further targets ahead of Saracens in their pursuit of greatness.
Billy Vunipola argues that is a mantle Saracens have yet to grasp despite becoming only the fourth team to win back-to-back Champions Cups after Leinster, Leicester and Toulon. Those sides were titans, but Saracens are looking outside rugby for their yardsticks.
Between 2011 and 2015 in which Saracens lost four semi-finals and two finals, they borrowed the man- tra of “pounding the rock” from the San Antonio Spurs, who lost in several finals before finally becoming NBA champions; the idea that if you keep persevering, keep believing, you will eventually break the rock.
Having made that breakthrough, their attention now turns to the teams who are able to sustain that success over the long run, the Hawthorn Hawks in Australian Rules and Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona.
“I think we’re a good team and we always have been, we just haven’t won trophies before,” Vunipola said. “A great team is Barcelona, a team that wins everything. We’re striving towards that but we’ll see. We have a massive game next week [against Exeter Chiefs in the Premiership semi-final]. If we win that it will give us an opportunity of stepping up to greatness but it’s very early days. We still have a lot of work to do before I feel comfortable saying we’re a great team.”
It was during a raucous rendition of Tiki Tiki Tonga, their victory anthem, that Vunipola dislodged a ceiling tile of the Murrayfield dressing room. It was not the only hole the England No 8 left in an awesome display of ball-carrying power that resulted in the man-of-the-match honours. The Anthony Foley Memorial Trophy for the player of the tournament, meanwhile, went to fly-half Owen Farrell, who took over the captaincy from Brad Barritt. At times Farrell was seen shouting in a non-too friendly manner at his team-mates, but it was his boot that shut the door on Clermont.
“It’s amazing for someone so young to be so driven,” Vunipola said. “Faz is only, what, 25 and he’s the hungriest person out there. He’s a bit like Kobe Bryant [the NBA legend] – he shouts at everyone but you can see where he’s coming from. He wants everyone to perform at his level and today he got player of the season and it shows what an amazing player he is.”