BILLY PILES ON Vunipola gives boss another
ENGLAND are set to be hit by further World Cup disruption as Billy Vunipola faces suspension after being sent off in a heavy defeat to Ireland in Dublin.
The England No.8 was dispatched to the sin-bin in the 53rd minute by referee Paulwilliams for a shoulder to the head of Ireland prop Andrew Porter. But, just as with Owen Farrell last week against Wales, it was upgraded to a red under the bunker review system.
Vunipola, like Farrell, will face a disciplinary hearing this week and if he is banned, it will be a major headache for coach Steve Borthwick,
Neil
who has no other specialist No.8 in the squad for France.
Borthwick saw precious little at the Aviva Stadium to inspire optimism for the coming campaign and England fans are rapidly losing faith.
“I empathise with the supporters.we wanted more progress on the pitch than we saw,” said Borthwick.
“Against the best side in the world, we needed 15 players on the pitch.we were facing an uphill battle when we went down to 14.
“There’s going to be another week of disruption now.we knew that was coming but it’s going to be amplified with Billy.
“We certainly put a large emphasis on discipline and safety.we’ve had plenty of conversations about it.”
With the stood-down Farrell watching on, England leaked five tries, created precious little and now have just one more warm-up match against Fiji at Twickenham on Saturday to find some confidence.
Captain Courtney Lawes said: “It was not the performance we wanted at all.we knew it was going to be hard away from home against the No.1 side in the world but we really hurt ourselves in certain areas, discipline being one.”
England did manage a close-range consolation try from replacement Kyle Sinckler but they have scored just four in five Tests.
Ireland were rusty in what was the first summer hit-out for many of their A-listers but they still won at a canter.
First-half tries from centres Bundee Aki and Garry Ringrose were added to after the banishment ofvunipola by wings James Lowe and Mack Hansen before replacement Keith Earls marked his 100th cap in style with Ireland’s fifth.
Earls said: “There was a lot of pressure but thankfully we got the win.”