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Billy Vunipola: 'I'm definitely staying' but No.8's England future is unclear

By Ian Cameron
Billy Vunipola (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Billy Vunipola is staying at Saracens and the No.8 is preparing for playing in the Championship, where he hopes a season in the English second tier will give his body an opportunity to heal.

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The 130kg England backrow is not clear, however, about his international prospects when playing in the Championship, having not spoken with anyone within the RFU on the matter.

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Speaking to RugbyPass on ‘The Lockdown’ with Jim Hamilton, Vunipola says he can only see positives for Saracens, who were automatically relegated earlier this season for breaches of the salary cap.

“There way I see, it’s part of the journey of the club.

“Some boys have had to try and further their careers, as they are at the start of their careers. I’m kind of in the middle of it.

“Boys are in different situations, and I can understand that. They’ve got families and things to look after.

“From my point of view, I’m just trying to sit still and play it out, see where we end up next year.

“I can’t see a negative in it. I’ve haven’t spoken directly to the powers at the top, when it comes to England or at Sarries, as to what will happen in terms of international recognition but if there’s one positive to take out of it, is I hope that my body will take less of a battering.

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“With no disrespect to the Championship, it will give my body a chance to heal. I don’t think they play as many games in the Championship. They don’t have Champions Cup or those big games. You (Jim Hamilton) know what it’s like, they just keep coming.

“I’m excited for next year. I reckon I’ll play as much as I can, try to help the team as much as possible and hopefully we’ll come straight back up.

Asked if he had had his head turned along the way by the lure of Japan, France or even Super Rugby, Vunipola was clear: “No, not really.”

“All the reports coming out, the club have looked after me, and not just me, my family. It’s time for me to dig my heels in and scrap with the boys and hopefully come up next year.

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“There lots of examples of clubs going down, like Northampton going down and coming up and doing well, same thing goes for Quins, so, it’s kind of a good point in our journey as a club to reset some of our goals and accelerate.”

“Yes, I’m definitely staying.”

Eric Idle Saracens Billy Vunipola
Billy Vunipola of Saracens is congratulated after scoring his try during the Champions Cup Final. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

“It was always us against everyone else. That siege mentality, we kind of got stuck into that.

“If I was at another club I would have been annoyed. But I think a lot of things that did come out were exaggerated. Some points were made to seem worse than they were.

“You kind of let people get their feelings out there. I’m glad that none of boys reacted in ways that we would regret. The best way for us to react was try to win as many games as we could.

“When you think about where we are going to be now, players like my little cousin (Manu Vunipola), who’s playing at 10, and players around him, are going to get an opportunity to play against really, really experienced players in the Championship.

“We’ll probably get taught a few lessons and it will be good for their progression. In two or three years time these guys will be at the top of their game and the English game. That’s something people haven’t really thought about but that’s something we’ve talked about.

“We’re going to get to a situation where we are going to struggle to keep a hold of good players. As you know, the environment always breeds players that want to reach the top.

“There are no negatives to take out from it. People saying what they want to say, that’s just the way the world is.

“You look at what a person like Maro has done during his career, and you can’t take anything away from him. He’s gone from playing how many games unbeaten to playing for the Lions and proving how good he is.

“We’ve had a system where we’ve allowed players to be themselves. The end result is we’ve had a few world-class players within the one squad.

Vunipola broke his arm earlier this season, an injury that has plagued him since 2017.

‘My problem was, I probably wasn’t looking after it really well when I first broke my arm. Not listening to medical advice in wearing protective gear around it, so that was on me. But now, with the lockdown and not knowing when the season will start again, has given me time to let it heal and let it get better on its own, rather than me always rushing back for a big game.

“I got into a bad cycle of always getting back quickly. It started in 2017 and 2018. I won’t have to rush back for a big game like Leinster, who we would have had to play in two weeks time.”

Vunipola had surgery on the arm, but says he would have tried to get back for that Leinster game in Europe, had the season still have been going.

“This arm I’ve broken three times but this was a different part of the bone. With the titanium plate in there, it’s so rigid, it’s different to how your bones are, so I just got it caught. Hopefully, I can get back to 100 per cent.”

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J
Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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