BILLY’S IN
Vunipola desperate to get on the summer tour... after England take care of France in ‘Le Crunch’
BILLY VUNIPOLA will throw all his 19st 12lb at France at Twickenham in the Autumn Nations Cup final this afternoon – knowing that his season will go into temporary cold storage afterwards.
Saracens’ relegation from the Premiership into the Championship – a league without a post-Covid restart date as yet – leaves Vunipola and his club-mates in limbo.
While Sarries have plugged one gap with a friendly against Leicester next weekend, it means their Test players will face a starkly different domestic season to their international colleagues.
But Vunipola believes the reduced workload will play to his advantage in the long term as he chases his dream of a first Lions tour in the summer.
He said: “The Lions is a massive box to tick. I’m sick and tired of my brother Mako and Toby Faletau reminiscing about their last two tours.
“I want to be in on these stories. I want to don the red shirt. That is one of the goals I want to achieve.
“It’s not just going to happen. I have to work hard and keep my head down. But while I don’t want to say it out loud, thi s is probably a blessing in disguise.
“These guys have to go back to games next week, to European clashes where you have to go fully loaded to perform.
“Then they are back to the Premiership and the Six Nations and Europe again.
“I’m not too sure where we stand at Sarries but one thing I do know for sure is that we don’t have European clashes next week.”
Vunipola was picked for the 2017 Lions tour to New Zealand but pulled out for a shoulder op.
The goal of England coach Eddie Jones is to have 20 of his players on the Lions tour to South Africa, Vunipola among them.
Jones said: “We want to make sure we are the dominant team in Europe, and if you are dominant in Europe then you dominate Lions selection.
“That would be a great individual recognition of the players’ efforts.”
France were the last side to beat England, back in February, since when Jones’ men have reeled off eight wins in a row, and it should be a ninth today against a
Fren French ench side sid ide weakened weaken ed by club call-ups. “It’s not something that I can get mad at,” said Vunipola. “Those are their rules.
“As much as we would love to play their first team, so to speak, we have to play what is in front of us.”
Vunipola, who starts his 50th game for England today, added: “Our attack has not been flowing as much as we want it to but we will get there.
“We have targeted this game to be our best performance. It’s our last one for a while.”
For Vunipola, coming home from the England bubble will bring a break from rugby, but it won’t be exactly feet up.
He and wife Simmone became parents a month ago when son Judah was born.
He said: “I’ve felt guilty sometimes when I’ve had a full night’s sleep here, but at the same time I’ve loved it!”
Billy won’t though be playing alongside Mako against France today after his older brother withdrew with an Achilles issue. Ellis Genge will start, with Joe Marler drafted on to the bench.
We want this game to be our best as it’s the last for a while
some cases, ‘How is someone else’s wife?’.
“Eddie always made you know where you stand and knew how to get the best out of you. I remember him saying to me once, ‘Hask, do you know how good you could be ? You could be one of the best in the world’.
“He would also cause conflict RIGHT BALANCE: between players and coaches. He knew you could learn from conflict.”
There will be 2,000 fans at Twickenham today and Haskell admits he needed a crowd to perform.
“I love rugby,” he said, “but not enough to play in an empty stadium. I need to hear the crowd and the noise when I walk in to the stadium. I wanted all that.”