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Billy Vunipola reveals the brutal plan England executed to beat the All Blacks

Tom Curry and Billy Vunipola share a laugh after England book their ticket to the World Cup final (Photo by Getty Images)

Billy Vunipola has revealed that England wanted to “shock” the All Blacks in the opening 20 minutes of their unforgettable World Cup semi-final performance.

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Centre Manu Tuilagi set the tone with a try after just 97 seconds, and then it was virtually mistake-free rugby during an opening half when England hit new heights under head coach Eddie Jones.

Vunipola All Blacks
Billy Vunipola on the charge

New Zealand ultimately fell to a first World Cup defeat since 2007, ending a run of 18 successive tournament victories as England stormed home 19-7.

“The challenge was either you try to do it to them, or they will do it to you,” England number eight Vunipola said.

“We tried to do that from the get-go, and we did that. It was about trying to shock them.

“Maro (Itoje) and everyone else has said it that we wanted to shock them in the first 20 minutes because that is when they begin their process of wearing teams down.

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“We did not want to be one of those teams who were worn down. I thought we did really well from the opening minute.

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“They are not the number one team in the world for no reason. They don’t give you easy points. You have to work for everything.

“You have to play in the right area, and I thought our generals were amazing at putting us in the right places and giving us the opportunity to get our breath back.

“Once they have got the ball they will go from anywhere. They are extremely accurate with their skills, and obviously a lot of teams try to base themselves off what they do.

“Like Eddie said when he first came in, we just want to be England. If that means that we are not as good-looking as them, then so be it. We are different. We play our own brand of rugby.

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“A lot of people were doubting us because of all the games that we lost to New Zealand. We got written off, and we just wanted to come out and put in a good performance.

“At the start of the week, Eddie wanted us to rewrite history. We have gone one step towards doing that, and we have another game next week.”

England will contest their fourth World Cup final in Yokohama next Saturday and target a second victory following the Jonny Wilkinson-inspired success of 16 years ago.

“It’s awesome (to be in the final). We want to try to win it – that’s our mindset,” Vunipola added.

Vunipola, Tom Curry and Sam Underhill forged a formidable England back-row unit, and all three can now set their sights on challenging for rugby union’s biggest prize.

Curry said: “You have to take the occasion in and not let it pass you by, but control is massive to our game and we have to make sure we deliver that again.

“We don’t want to do a disservice to ourselves because of the occasion. The World Cup is such a fast-moving pace that we have to shift our focus quickly.

“Was there a point when I thought we had them (New Zealand)? Yes, at 80 minutes. When the whistle went, we got them – we had to stay focused for the entire game.

“You can get ahead of yourself, but one of the great things about this team is that it is down to earth. You have to enjoy occasions like this because they don’t come around that often, but we are very good at focusing on the next task.”

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J
JW 7 minutes ago
Scott Robertson explains the new halves pairing for the All Blacks ahead of France

More indecision and excuses from Razor.


You've given a spot at 6 to Finau whom you haven't even had the courage to use off the bench in the last two games. Now the young enforcer is going into a big much with no rugby, we should expect a similar result to how Aumua struggled to impact a game after he'd hardly been given any chances of the bench either.


Weve now dropped a back three player who also wasn't even given any game time off the bench for someone coming in cold when they really need to have been playing constantly to perform at their best. There are just so many better pictures that should have been present rather than this mickey mouse selection.


I really hope Finau can overcome this, it won't be the first time he's had to. How is the bench even made up? Could you not just have included these changes in the article as well? I actually like BB coming back in, it highlights how courageous he is after sitting out through another concussion that could just as easily sent him back into months of symptoms again.


Dmac was also off his game last week, as was Ratima, with the poor platform Razor and his team have been setting the players up with. He needs to freedom to clear his mind from the clutter that saw him make so many bad decisions last week. It will still probably be a net loss for the team performance not having him on from the start but it should be better for them in the long run if he's allowed to just come on late and play his game trying to claw things back for the team.


With Roigard starting that might prove an outlet for the team to actually get on top first however. Along with Ardie busting a gut in his new role and emptying the tank by halftime, and being replaced by another new star, might mean that Dmac is just icing on the cake at the end.

10 Go to comments
F
Flankly 33 minutes ago
Jake White: If I was England coach, I’d have been livid

I am not an England fan, but still very disappointed at what Borthwick is serving up. Regardless of winning or losing, they should be executing the basics at a world class level. That was the reason they replaced Eddie with Steve. After two years England has not built the solid foundations that the RFU were presumably after. Its hard to see it as anything other than a coaching problem.


Having said that I really hope that Rassie has got his team fired up for the game. The Boks at maximum intensity and with no crises (eg red cards) would be expected to win this game. But it does not take much reduction in pressure for Bok teams to lose. The Boks lose when complacency sets in.


On Felix Jones, my guess is that they can't agree on a non-compete so they kept him on payroll for the duration of the Nov tests. The risk was that he would be hired by Rassie or Razor prior to the tests.


As relates to law tweaking, it feels like WR are more comfortable discussing changes in laws than insisting on implementation. For my money the biggest thing they could do is to be strict and consistent in officiating ruck behavior. In every game we see flopping, lazy lying, clearing of unbound players, making plays while off your feet, delays in placing the ball, side entry, offside line infringements, and similar nonsense. It's really really bad, and the WR attitude seems to be that we should turn a blind eye in pursuit of "flowing rugby". In truth it's just boring, because it randomizes the outcome.

9 Go to comments
N
NH 2 hours ago
Battle of the breakdown to determine Wallabies’ grand slam future

Nice one John. I agree that defence (along with backfield kick receipt/positioning) remains their biggest issue, but that I did see some small improvements in it despite the scoreline like the additional jackal attempts from guys like tupou and the better linespeed in tight. But, I still see two issues - 1) yes they are jackaling, but as you point out they aren't slowing the ball down. I think some dark arts around committing an extra tackler, choke tackles, or a slower roll away etc could help at times as at the moment its too easy for oppo teams to get quick ball (they miss L wright). Do you have average ruck speed? I feel like teams are pretty happy these days to cop a tackle behind the ad line if they still get quick ball... and 2) I still think the defence wide of the 3-4th forward man out looks leaky and disconnected and if sua'ali'i is going to stay at 13 I think we could see some real pressure through that channel from other teams. The wallabies discipline has improved and so they are giving away less 3 pt opportunities and kicks into their 22 via penalty. Now, they need to be able to force teams to turnover the ball and hold them out. They scramble quite well once a break is made, but they seem to need the break to happen first... Hunter, marika and daugunu were other handy players to put ruck pressure on. Under rennie, they used to counter ruck quite effectively to put pressure on at the b/down as well.

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