Billy Vunipola has revealed he turned down the chance to earn a small fortune in guest speaking at Twickenham during his England exile, as he prepares for what will feel like a “new debut” in his first Test appearance there in front of a bumper crowd in more than three years.
Due to a combination of Covid restrictions, injuries and falling out of favour with Eddie Jones last season, Vunipola has not appeared at Twickenham in front of a full house since a 2019 World Cup warm-up fixture against Ireland. The No 8 fought his way back into the side for last summer’s tour of Australia and is set to continue against Argentina on Sunday after being overlooked for last autumn’s fixtures and this year’s Six Nations.
Vunipola was offered the chance to be a guest speaker at hospitality events at Twickenham on match days, where fees can run into four figures per appearance, but turned down the opportunity. In part for fear of how what he might say about his omission would be interpreted, in part because Twickenham was the last place he wanted to be when out of Jones’s plans.
“Sometimes it’s not about money, it’s more about how you want to feel, how you want to present yourself,” said Vunipola, who also revealed he was approached about potential moves abroad while out of the England picture. “I didn’t want to be one of those guys who was just happy to be dropped. Just turning up, happy to take the cash. I wasn’t happy just to take the cash. I wanted to play.
“Being injured is different to being fit and not being picked. There’s a different feeling, it’s almost envy and you don’t want envy because you want the team of England and the players playing to do well. But there’s a part of yourself as a human being, as a competitor that wants to be involved in that arena.
“Rather than be there and sap I wanted to put myself in the best position to not be in that position. Where I’m playing, not sitting with 100 drunk people asking me questions about Eddie.
“I watched every single game. I didn’t want to be bitter about it because I wanted to see who my competitors were and what they were doing that I wasn’t. But I didn’t want to be at Twickenham. There are marquees everywhere, they want to throw cash at you to do appearances and that was one thing I didn’t want to do because you say one thing wrong, and someone sends it out to the press.
“I didn’t want to say anything that hurt my chances of coming back in. That’s a big reason why I stayed away from it, because I feel a lot of people have made the mistake of calling Eddie out – not directly but through the media and it has backfired a lot of the times.”
Vunipola never lost his conviction that he would return to the England setup and excelled against Australia. Before the third Test he detailed how hard he found it adjusting to Saracens’ relegation to the Championship but his performances against the Wallabies, particularly the second Test in Brisbane, suggests Jones’s decision to drop him has had the desired effect.
So what has he missed most about playing in front of a packed home crowd? “Running out to a full Twickenham just before the anthems. You don’t get to do that anywhere else. Even the Premiership final wasn’t that full but Twickenham [for England], you can tell it’s packed to the rafters.
“Everyone is there to watch you, then you sing the anthem and then there’s that little bit between the anthem and playing where you get that spike of nervous energy mixed in with excitement.
“That’s probably what I’ve missed the most because you can’t compare anything to international rugby. It’s been a while. It’s almost like a new debut there for me. It’s something that has given me a lot of motivation; to get back into the England team and play at a full Twickenham. I’m pretty pumped about this game.”
When Jones dropped Vunipola at the start of last season, he also omitted his brother Mako as well as Jamie George, questioning whether the Saracens trio had the hunger to compete at another World Cup. But Billy, who turned 30 on Thursday, believes Australia 2027 is not out of the question. “I look at Courtney [Lawes],” he said. “He’s 33, going on 34, and still a machine, doing really well. He’s matured unbelievably well as a leader, as I found out in Australia.
“I don’t want to say this [World Cup in 2023] is my last. I’ll see how long I can go on for because you never know. To play for England is a massive honour. You don’t want to put a stop to your career by saying after next year I’m done.”
