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'I'm biased... but Billy has been outstanding for Saracens'
By Liam Heagney
Mako Vunipola has hailed the efforts of his younger brother Billy to impress this season at Saracens and remind Eddie Jones that he still has what it takes to be a viable option for England. Having played in the deflating, campaign-ending March 2021 loss to Ireland in Dublin, both Vunipola brothers were axed from the England set-up at the start of the 2021/22 season and it was only last month when loosehead Mako was invited back to training for the first time since that exclusion.
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There was no call for Billy to return, though, despite his huge influence on the push by Saracens to get through to this Saturday’s Gallagher Premiership final versus Leicester at Twickenham. Not since he was at Wasps in the 2012/13 season prior to his move to Sarries had the 29-year-old played 20 or more matches in a single Premiership campaign.
His appearances in the top-flight over the years totalled 13, 16, 10, 13, 8, 11 and 9 per season, while there were just eight runs for him in last season’s truncated Championship. However, with no international rugby to eat into his time in 2021/22, Vunipola has started in 22 of Saracens’ 25 league matches and his 23rd appearance will now come in Saturday’s final where he will seek to win his fifth Premiership title.
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In playing so much rugby he has clocked up a whopping 1,638 minutes and scored four tries, equalling his previous best strike rate from the 2014/15 campaign. However, all that activity hasn’t been enough yet to convince Jones to hand him an England call-up, something that his 31-year-old brother Mako feels his efforts deserve.
“These are the decisions that are out of my hands,” said the front row Vunipola about his back row brother who has seen Alex Dombrandt, Sam Simmonds and even flanker Tom Curry wearing the England No8 jersey in recent times. “All I can say is that the way he has played this year has been massive for us as a team.
“There have been some games this season where we needed a kick start and he has been the one to do that. At the weekend he got run over by (Andre) Esterhuizen but apart from that he did well – but he got sin binned for that. As I said, whenever the team needs go-forward, he has put his hand up for that and he has mixed up his game as well with the ability to offload and pass.
“Defensively, people see the big shots but the work and the ability to get back has gone up a notch. I am biased, this is coming from me as his brother, but what I can say is that he has been outstanding for Saracens.”
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Do the Vunipola brothers talk much with each other about their respective England fortunes and how they are performing for Saracens? “I talk to him now and then but Billy doesn’t need too much from me. We don’t really talk that much, to be honest, but when we do talk it’s a how are you type of thing.
“The key for us is to make sure we focus on the present, what is in front of us in terms of playing well for Saracens, which I feel he has done and that is all he can do. That is all you can control. For him, his wife and his little boy have been massive. I mentioned in the past how when you become a parent there is perspective to everything. Everyone understands there is more to life than rugby.
“But as rugby players, we are emotional, we want to be playing, we still want to be playing for England. To do that hasn’t changed. We have still got to play well for our club and do our job there and then you go from there really. Those decisions aren’t in our hands.
“I feel like he has done that [played well to get a recall]. I am a bit biased, obviously, but for us (at Saracens) this year he has been massive, just giving us that go-forward that we need. Whenever there is a need for us to get a bit of a kick up the bum, he is there most of the time to do it.”
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