Eddie Jones’s plans for the autumn internationals next month are in serious danger of being thrown into disarray after Billy and Mako Vunipola were among a host of England players to fall victim to injury during Saracens’ tempestuous victory against Glasgow Warriors.
Billy Vunipola trudged off with 30 minutes to go and required ice on his left arm – it was his right that he broke twice last season – while Mako sustained a calf injury midway through the first half and was later seen wearing a protective boot.
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To compound matters both Maro Itoje and Jamie George sustained broken noses, Owen Farrell took a bang to the knee, Nick Isiekwe hobbled off in considerable pain and Alex Lozowski appeared to hurt his arm in the closing stages of a brutal if scrappy match. Jones names his autumn squad on Thursday so faces an anxious few days ahead.
“For Mako, it is too soon to say the extent of it,” the Saracens director of rugby, Mark McCall, said. “Billy’s is not the same arm, and again it is too early to say if it just a bang or something more serious.”
Quite apart from the quality the two Vunipolas would bring to Jones’s side for autumn fixtures against South Africa, New Zealand, Japan and Australia, they are all the more invaluable considering the dearth of back-up options. In Mako’s case, Joe Marler has now retired from international rugby while Ellis Genge and Beno Obano are both out of action with injury. At No 8, Sam Simmonds is a long-term injury absentee while Nathan Hughes is in the dock again on Wednesday and he may not be alone, such was the number of flare-ups and off-the-ball incidents in a match contested by a number of players for whom the Calcutta Cup clash this year clearly had not been forgotten.
Perhaps none more so that Itoje, named man of the match and in the thick of it whenever tempers boiled over. The Glasgow head coach, Dave Rennie, said of Itoje: “He pushes the boundaries, that was probably why he was man of the match.” He was not being altogether complimentary.
Indeed, there was an incident just on the stroke of half-time, after DTH van der Merwe had a try disallowed, in which Itoje could be seen joining in Glasgow’s celebrations in mocking fashion with his opponents seemingly unaware of the referee Mathieu Raynal’s decision. Billy Vunipola appeared to do similar and it was neither his nor Itoje’s finest hour.
There was just one try in the match, scored by Michael Rhodes early in the first half, and not a point managed by either side in the second. It was certainly an eventful contest but it was far from a classic. Saracens can reflect on a job done, and McCall was evidently happy to deny Glasgow a losing bonus point but, considering they have managed 29 tries from their first six Premiership games, they were not at their fluent best.
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Not in attack anyway. For defensively they were imperious and Glasgow could not break them down, save for the odd individual break which was too often followed by a rush of blood. Take nothing away from the English champions but you had to wonder whether a fit Stuart Hogg might have provided the cutting edge the Warriors could not find.
Their fly-half Adam Hastings – the 22-year-old son of the former British & Irish Lions captain Gavin – is developing a burgeoning reputation but his was an inauspicious start, shanking what should have been a straightforward penalty well wide before Saracens took control with Rhodes finishing off a try that had been coming after Sean Maitland and Lozowski had both gone close. It came with a slice of luck as Lozowski appeared to have been forced into touch in the buildup.
Already tempers were fraying and Farrell’s first penalty was greeted with resounding boos, but over it went to put the visitors 10-0 ahead. Hastings got Glasgow on the board with a penalty in almost exactly the same place as his earlier miss before Farrell was on target with another three points after yet more afters in which he and Ryan Wilson got themselves reacquainted following their Calcutta Cup tunnel bust-up. In the same incident, Rhodes appeared to grab Van der Merwe by the hair.
A period of Warriors pressure then eventually led to the Canadian wing’s disallowed try and you had to wonder if they would have been better served taking a shot at goal. Equally, whether Raynal might have shown a yellow card to punish some pretty cynical Saracens defending.
The visitors spent the first 10 minutes of the second half camped in Glasgow’s 22 before losing Billy Vunipola and with him the impetus. The Warriors were energised by the introduction of George Horne at scrum-half but Hastings was guilty of being too lateral too often.
When Horne did break the Saracens line he was lacking in the requisite composure to find Lee Jones outside him on the right – the impressive George Kruis making the covering tackle. “It was a tough old game,” McCall said. “It wasn’t our best performance, far from it, but a lot of that is down to the opposition that you are playing against. We had to scrap.”