Perhaps it should not be surprising it takes someone of Billy Vunipola’s size to tackle the elephant in the room. “Everyone says: ‘I’m not thinking about the Lions’ – they’re all lying,” he says. “It’s all the media training, everyone is scared of saying: ‘I’m scared of not going.’”
Vunipola is in candid mood. Here is an England international admitting defeat in Dublin may be a good thing, a member of the all-conquering Saracens side shining a light on their secrets of success and a would-be Lion revealing he is kept awake at night for fear of being overlooked by Warren Gatland.
This kind of honesty can disarm. Vunipola’s vulnerability does not fit with his hulking frame, nor his ascendancy over the past 18 months to one of the world’s very best No8s. When he is in full flow like this, it pays to listen – though as far as the call from Gatland is concerned, he should be sleeping easy. “I’ve had dreams about it. I imagine things like, what would it be like not to be picked, or to be picked, and it’s scary,” says Vunipola. “It helps motivate me to become extra cautious when I’m preparing and in how I train. If I’m as good as I can be then whatever happens after that I can be happy in myself.”
Four years ago, Vunipola was only 20 and yet to make an appearance for England when Gatland announced his squad. While his brother Mako and cousin Taulupe Faletau were preparing to face Australia, Billy won his first two caps off the bench in Argentina, before flying out to watch the Lions clinch the series victory in Sydney. “It’s a dream I’ve been chasing ever since my England debut. I was envious of my cousin and Mako going in 2013,” says Vunipola.
“But I was never in a position to go, so I couldn’t get upset. Now I can try my best and see where I end up. It’s like being the little kid that misses out, or on a night out. You don’t want to be the one missing out. Even if you get a fight with your missus, you still want to be on a night out with the boys.”
Injury is the only thing that will result in Vunipola missing out this summer. Coming off the bench against Scotland, then starting against Ireland, he was not quite at the peak of his powers after returning from a knee injury, but any lingering rust has gone after bulldozing performances in resounding Saracens victories over Bath and Glasgow. “It’ll make next year more interesting,” he says of the Six Nations, “because what if we did win the double [grand slam]? I’m sure Eddie would never let us be complacent but it’s hard to always be the team that is leading from the front. It’s like if you’re running a race, if you’re leading from the front you don’t always know who is behind you.”
It is put to Vunipola that Saracens – defending champions in both the Premiership and Europe – have been leading from the front for a while. They are the only English team left in the Champions Cup and, boosted by the return of their internationals, are building up some steam as the domestic season reaches a climax, starting with Harlequins at Wembley on Saturday.
“The culture here is so strong, that’s what we fall back on … I’ve seen some of the boys at their worst,” he says. “It’s good to see people vulnerable, you build relationships by being vulnerable. When we do lose games, we don’t just take the on-field learning, we take the off-field learning – how we could talk to each other better, how we can deal with situations better and that just comes from our interaction.”
While Eddie Jones would disagree, there is a school of thought that believes Vunipola – and indeed Gatland – will benefit from his layoff after knee surgery in November. “I’m excited about playing rugby but I was excited before [the injury] anyway,” says Vunipola. “It’s no different, it’s the same mentality – do everything you did before but better.”
Vunipola’s commitment to improvement is commendable and a frightening prospect considering he is yet to reach his peak – but it was not always the case. Defeat for Saracens in both the European and Premiership finals in 2014 proved the turning point who until that point had, in his words, “always landed on my feet”.
“It was [about] how interested was I in getting better and becoming a better rugby player rather than just a rugby player who has a good life,” he says. “That was the difference. I used to enjoy the life of coming in, training, going home, doing nothing.
“I used to think: ‘Why aren’t I as good as these other guys?’ I always wanted the big moments, but didn’t want to put in the little ones, like extra fitness. I’d get to the middle of the season and think: ‘I’m nearly at the end of the season so I can relax.’”
While Vunipola pinpoints those losses three years ago, it was not until Jones’s arrival that he reached his current level with England. Indeed, Jones’s investment in Vunipola – he is one of England’s three vice-captains and the two have evidently hit it off – has been among the Australian’s shrewdest moves. “It’s all kind of coincided, but you don’t have a team going from zero to 100 in a year,” he says. “The World Cup, we had to go through that, being ridiculed, being told we were mugs. Then we win a grand slam and all of a sudden the Six Nations is weak. Then we don’t win it and suddenly the Six Nations is strong – it’s perspective.”
