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England fans exasperated by Vunipola's status as the only player to start all four warm-up games

Fans are concerned by Billy Vunipola's over-use (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Billy Vunipola is set to be the only player to start all four of England’s World Cup warm-up Test matches after he was named in the line-up to face Italy this Friday at St James’ Park. 

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The England coaching team have defended their over-reliance on Vunipola, saying the No8 needs to play regularly as he gets better with every game despite fears from fans of fatigue and injury. 

The Saracens star has had his fair share of injury troubles over the past couple of seasons, particularly with his knees and breaking an arm on multiple occasions. 

With England’s World Cup campaign starting less than three weeks, England fans on social media cannot understand why he is still being played. 

Regardless of what Eddie Jones and his coaching team have said, the consensus is that the fans would rather see the 26-year-old rested. 

(Continue reading below…)

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Vunipola is quite possibly England’s most influential player, as he has already proven over the past three games, and it is an unnecessary risk to play him against Italy. 

With Mark Wilson in the starting XV, who deputised for Vunipola last autumn when he was injured, and Matt Kvesic on the bench, fans would rather see one of those two given a chance at the back of the scrum in preparation for the World Cup. 

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Unless Vunipola is expected to play every minute of every game in Japan, this seems like a sensible decision to assess the team in the absence of the bruising forward. This has been the reaction: 

https://twitter.com/A_Cops2/status/1169142975408087040?s=20

https://twitter.com/jk12_34/status/1169148294800531458?s=20

Jones has stuck by this decision to give Vunipola as much game time as possible, and while many people do not agree, that will not be a concern for the coach. 

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Throughout his tenure as the England boss he has backed himself in light of criticism and his decisions have invariably paid off.

This is an instance where the England fans will have to trust that the coaching team know what they are doing in terms of the management of one of their most prized players. 

WATCH: Former England star James Haskell on his deal with mixed martial arts promoters Bellator

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TWAS 37 minutes ago
How the Lions will heap pressure upon Australia's million-dollar man

I’m sorry but this just seems like incredibly selective analysis attempting to blame all team failures on JAS.


Looking through the examples:


Example 1 - long place by JAS, all support overruns the ruck. Pilfer also achieved by a player resting his arms on JAS - so should be a penalty for of his feet anyway. No failure by JAS there failing to secure the ball. By his team mates, yes.


Example 2 - a knock on punched out by the first defender who’s tackle he initially beat, from behind. An error by JAS absolutely. But every player makes the odd handling error.


Example 3 - JAS just beaten to the ruck because defender shoots to make a good tackle He passes and immediately follows. Potentially should have been a penalty to Aus because the tackler had not released and swung around into JAS’s path preventing him securing the ball, and had not released when the jackal went for the pilfer. Tackler prevented a clean release by Potter and if there was any failure, it was the ball carrier who got into a horrible position.


I am struggling how you try and blame 1 on JAS and not support, but then blame JAS when the tackler fails to make a good placement.


Example 4 - JAS flies into this ruck out of nowhere, seemingly runs past the 12 to get there. Also did you miss McReight and Williams just jogging and letting JAS run past them? Anyway he busts a get to get there but was beaten to the contest. Any failure here is on the supporting players, McReight and Williams and JAS showed great instinct to charge in to try and secure.


Example 5 - JAS is following the lead of players inside him. How this is his fault I don’t know what you are thinking


Example 6 - Gleeson misses a tackle so JAS has to drift in off his man to take the ball carrier, leaving a larger overlap when he offloads. Failure by Gleeson not JAS


Examples 7 and 8 - Wallabies defensive line isn’t aggressive. But noting to do with JAS. Fisher has actually said he is not coaching a fast line speed. To try and blame JAS is again selective.


Seems like an agenda in this rather than the genuine, quality analysis I’ve come to expect from the author.

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