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Sensational Vunipola brothers report well wide of the mark

By Chris Jones
(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Mako and Billy Vunipola will not be playing Super Rugby any time soon despite claims the England forwards are set to quit Saracens and head to the southern hemisphere.

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RugbyPass have been assured that neither player is looking at Super Rugby as an option as they weigh up their immediate playing plans after Saracens’ relegation to the Championship next season following a heavy fine and massive points penalty for breaking the agreed Gallagher Premiership salary cap for the last three seasons.

Mako and Billy Vunipola reportedly in talks with several Super Rugby clubs

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Mako, who has won 59 England caps, and 51-times capped Billy recently returned from Tonga where the visited a sick relative and their close ties to that region led to speculation that a season away from Europe could be an attractive alternative. 

Joe Marchant, the England centre, is currently on loan from Harlequins to enable him to play for the Auckland-based Blues in Super Rugby. That move was designed to help fast track the career of one of England’s most promising mid-fielders, but Mako and Billy are already established international stars. 

Mako, who was banned from joining the England players for the recent Six Nations match with Wales due to concerns about coronavirus after travelling through Hong Kong on his trip to and from Tonga with his brother, is one of the world’s outstanding front row forwards and is settled in England with his young family.

Billy, who got married in Tonga last year, is currently recovering from a fourth broken arm and the disruption to the current season caused by coronavirus may allow the No8 to return to action before the season ends. 

Mako helped Saracens to a ninth Premiership win of the season over Leicester on March 7 and Mark McCall, who insists all but one of the current Saracens squad have sorted out their plans for next season, said: “Billy is not close at the moment to being back.”

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In January, New Zealand Rugby’s head of professional rugby Chris Lendrum said it was possible more high-profile players could seek a change of scenery down under similar to Marchant’s switch. 

Lendrum told the New Zealand Herald: “We’re massively excited about Joe and you never know – maybe not in a Lions year next year, but if someone else wants to come out and try their hand at Super Rugby we’d be really open to it.”

WATCH: The confusing Mako Vunipola England/Saracens fallout

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Jon 8 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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j
john 10 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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