'I said as a joke if we don't turn up, we're going home, but it shocked a few of the boys'
Billy Vunipola has stunned his England team-mates out of “fairyland” by declaring their World Cup could be over on Saturday. Eddie Jones’ men face Australia at Oita Stadium knowing their quest to lift the Webb Ellis Trophy will be in tatters along with the Twickenham future of their head coach if they slump to a first defeat by the Wallabies since 2015.
Jones has staked the success of his entire regime on England’s performance at the World Cup, while it would be Michael Cheika’s final match at the Australian helm if his underdogs were to lose the quarter-final. Four years of build-up to Japan 2019 hurtles towards a win or bust clash – a point rammed home with brutal honesty by Vunipola.
“Wednesday is our biggest training day and I said as a remark just to check the boys: ‘Lads, this could be our last session’,” Vunipola said. “I had a few stares from the lads and they just all laughed it off, but I was like, ‘I’m being serious. If we don’t turn up, we’re going home.’ I said it as a joke but it shocked a few of the boys.
“It is always nice to remind yourself. You don’t want to live in fairyland because you get to Sunday and it’s done and that’s when the excuses come up. But if you just take it head-on… we have talked about it already and made sure we know what the consequences are. We also know that if we can keep playing the way we have but just that little bit better, we will be in a good place.”
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Billy is to be reunited in England’s pack alongside older brother Mako for the first time since the Six Nations victory over France in February. Mako will be making his maiden start since May 11 after a hamstring injury interrupted his year, preventing him from making his comeback until the bonus-point victory over Argentina.
“It definitely is a thing playing with Mako. Subconsciously it’s not something we think about, but having my brother there gives me that time,” Vunipola said. “He obviously takes away tension because he is as much of a threat. We’ve got the Kyle Sincklers and the Jamie Georges, but Mako gives me space and timings in the next carry.
“He takes a lot of pressure off me because he’s the older brother, so anything that comes towards the Vunipolas he usually takes the brunt of it and I’m always in the back just kicking back as younger brothers do. I enjoy having him around, he’s a bit like my shield. That’s what big brothers do. I thoroughly enjoy playing with him and I’m happy to see him back in the team.
'I go into schools a lot and those kids need to be able to look up and identify with it. Rugby union has sort of a middle class (appeal)'
– @LandRoverRugby ambassador @Jason15Robinson on @EnglandRugby, @rugbyworldcup and finding the next generationhttps://t.co/b8pYYQF1er— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 12, 2019
“We have a funny relationship. Deep down we really love each other but he never says it to me. I always say it to him but he gets embarrassed and runs away! There is definitely that love and respect. We just do our own jobs. We don’t have to hang around and tell each other every day or every other minute how much we care for each other, it’s just there.”
Billy Vunipola at his best is an unstoppable ball carrier, but by his own admission the Saracens number eight – the only player to start all 12 of England’s games this year – has yet to hit full throttle in Japan. “I’m not being given as much time and space as I was used to. In the warm-up games, teams were watching and I became a big target against Tonga,” he said.
England vs Australia #RWC2019 #ENGvsAUS pic.twitter.com/xz086iXRUC
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 17, 2019
“It was about trying to change where I turn up, whether it was off nine, 10 or 13. It’s about doing whatever I can to help the team, whether that’s more depth off nine or 10 or just trucking it instead of trying to use footwork. I went from using no footwork to using a lot of footwork and now I think I need to go back.
“Hopefully, that’ll create space for me to use footwork later on. At the moment I’m not doing any tough carries, doing the hard yards which I probably haven’t been doing. I have been happy with where I’m at. My job is to help the team and I feel like I have done that over the last three weeks.”
– Press Association
WATCH: Jim Hamilton makes his predictions for all four World Cup quarter-finals in the latest episode of Don’t Mess With Jim
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments