McCall says dumped trio can bounce back
MARK McCALL has backed the Saracens trio of Jamie George, Mako Vunipola and Billy Vunipola to be fuelled by their shock snubs by England boss Eddie Jones. George and the Vunipola brothers were among a handful of high-profile absentees after Jones selected a provisional 45-man training squad ahead of autumn fixtures against Tonga, Australia and world champions South Africa. Hooker George and Mako Vunipola are poised to return to Sarries duty in the coming weeks following rest periods due to their summer involvement with the Lions, along with team-mates Owen Farrell and Maro Itoje. ‘Obviously for some of our players, it was disappointing. But knowing those players and knowing how motivated they are to play for England, Eddie wants to see a response and I’m sure you’ll see that,’ said McCall ‘We want them to play for their country. ‘If this is a provisional squad, there’s a proper squad going to be announced around October 8, so let’s see what happens with that squad and see if anybody has the chance to catch Eddie’s eye in between those two things. ‘But Eddie knows the quality of those players, he’s worked with them for a long time and if he sees what he hopes to see which is the hunger and drive, which is necessary to play at that level then hopefully they’ve got the opportunity to get back into the squad.’ Meanwhile, Ryno Pieterse has received a 12-week suspension for his horror tackle last month against Bordeaux-Begles in the Top 14. Castres’ 23-year-old South African second row was red carded on September 18 for a dangerous hit on scrum-half Maxime Lucu.