Billy Vunipola has joined Saracens teammate Owen Farrell with a ban that will rule him out of playing against Argentina in England‘s opening game of the Rugby World Cup.
But unlike Farrell, Vunipola still has the option to attend the World Rugby coaching programme on tackling which would mean he was available for his country’s second game against Japan.
Vunipola’s ban comes after he saw red for a tackle on Ireland‘s Andrew Porter following a review in the new World Rugby “TMO bunker”, a week after Farrell suffered the same fate for his tackle on Taine Basham.
Vunipola was able to collect a significant amount of mitigation for the tackle as it was his first offence, he showed immediate remorse and apologised, and there were a lack of aggravating factors.
“Billy has been through a lot in his career and has been really mature and really helpful towards the rest of the squad,” said England attack coach Richard Wigglesworth.
“There’s no worrying about himself. He’s worrying about everyone else.”
Had the ban been any longer, England head coach Steve Borthwick may have had to make a decision on whether to replace Vunipola in the squad, with no other specialist number eights to chose from in the other 32 players going to France.
But the fact Vunipola will only miss one World Cup game means he won’t consider replacing him, using this Saturday’s game against Fiji to find a player to plug the hole left in that position for Argentina.
Ben Earl and Jack Willis are the only players with any experience at number eight who can be considered for this weekend and England’s tournament opener, with Tom Curry – who often played number eight for previous head coach Eddie Jones – still recovering from an ankle injury.
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