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Why Billy Vunipola's return should come with a pinch of caution
Billy Vunipola is back in the Saracens squad for this weekend’s match against Bristol Bears, but he’s had so many returns from injury in the last 18 months it’s hard to get excited.
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He missed England’s first three Six Nations games of 2017 because of a knee injury, making a sub appearance against Scotland and starting against Ireland. The number 8 then withdrew from the 2017 British & Irish Lions tour to New Zealand because of a shoulder injury, opting for surgery to fix a recurring problem rather than touring.
Last season was pretty much a washout. A knee injury at the end of September also required surgery and saw him miss out on the Autumn internationals. After an absence of almost four months he returned, but that lasted just two matches before he suffered a fractured forearm against the Ospreys in the Champions Cup in January, wiping him out for another four months, forcing him to miss the entire 2018 Natwest Six Nations, where he was sorely missed as England finished fifth.
The 25-year-old made an appearance off the bench against London Irish at the end of April, but the luckless Vunipola tweaked a hamstring in training after that. He finally made his first start since that Ospreys game during Saracens Premiership 57-33 semi-final win over Wasps, however only lasted a half, due to a recurrence of the hamstring problem. He did recover in time to help Saracens to their third domestic title in four years starting the final against Exeter.
That was enough for Eddie Jones to immediately hand Vunipola the number 8 jersey for the South Africa tour, the first Test in Johannesburg was just his second international start for England since the 2016 Autumn internationals. But injury was yet again around the corner, the second Test in Bloemfontein saw him re-fracture his arm, ending his tour.
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Vunipola is a key cog around England’s World Cup ambitions, summed by Springbok number 8 Duane Vermuelen ahead of the third June Test against England.
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“He’s definitely England’s go-forward guy and without him, from what I saw in the Six Nations, they struggled. They need that guy. Billy is a big loss.” Vermeulen said.
When Jones picked Dylan Hartley as his captain, Billy Vunipola was one of three vice-captains selected, along with Mike Brown and Owen Farrell. Vunipola’s leadership style is more by example, rather than the vocal nature of the likes of Farrell and Brown.
If Eddie Jones truly believes England can win the 2019 World Cup, 36-times capped Vunipola is central to that. He will want the Vunipola of 2016, who picked up three man-of-the-match awards during England’s Six Nations Grand Slam campaign, and helped secure a 3-0 June series whitewash over Australia.
But he needs a run of games, he was influential in Saracens back-to-back Champions Cup wins in 2016 and 2017. But what can’t be escaped is that he’s made 85 appearances in five seasons for Saracens since joining from Wasps in 2013, that’s an average of 17 appearances a season. In those five years Saracens have reached the Premiership final four times and played 119 games in that competition, while in Europe Sarries have been in the latter stages in all five years of the Champions Cup playing 42 games in that period. That’s a total of 161 games between the two tournaments, meaning Vunipola has played just under 53% of the club’s matches. Although it would be impossible for any player in the modern age to play every game due to squad rotation and depth, along with player welfare taken into consideration – via the Professional Game Agreement which allows England players a maximum limit of 32 matches a season – Vunipola hasn’t played as many games as he or his club ideally would have wished. Despite this owner Nigel Wray and Director of Rugby Mark McCall are clearly not concerned about his ability to withstand the rigours of rugby, handing him and his brother Mako new contracts in August until the end of the 2021/2022 season.
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But while that vote of confidence is welcome while battling your way through a horror sequence of injuries, Vunipola is more than aware of the toll on players bodies. Almost 12 months ago he said “I just want people to understand that having surgery is not fun, and it’s not fun being injured. It gets to a point when you are just done”. England and Saracens fans will be hoping he’s far from done yet and instead the best is yet to come.
Comments on RugbyPass
Dagg is still trying to get enough headlines to make himself relevant enough to get a job. The Crusaders went back to square one at all levels. Shelve this season and nail the next one.
4 Go to commentsHe was in such great form. Sad for him but only a short term injury and it will be great to see him back for the finals.
1 Go to commentsAfter their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
3 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
36 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to comments