Billy Vunipola agrees Top 14 switch - report
Saracens No8 Billy Vunipola has joined the burgeoning list of England internationals moving to the Top 14 next season by agreeing a two-year deal with Montpellier, according to French outlet Midi Olympique.
The report comes almost two weeks after a potential move was flagged by RugbyPass.
The 29-year-old will bring his decade-long stay with the reigning Gallagher Premiership champions to an end at the close of this season, and team up with fellow England No8 Sam Simmonds in the south of France.
The move will continue Montpellier's recent tradition of recruiting English No8s, with Zach Mercer also winning the Top 14 with them in 2022.
Vunipola will join his Saracens teammate Owen Farrell in moving to France at the end of the season, with the fly-half set to join Racing 92. They will also lock horns with Manu Tuilagi next term, whose move to Bayonne was confirmed this week following his final appearance for England against France.
After failing to make Steve Borthwick's squad for the Guinness Six Nations this year, the 75-cap international's Test future did not look promising, but this move will definitively bring an end to it. Vunipola's last appearance, therefore, in an England jersey was the World Cup semi-final loss to South Africa last year.
The 126kg back row joined Saracens from Wasps in 2013, and has gone on to win five Premiership titles and three Investec Champions Cups. He has the opportunity to add to his silverware collection this season, with Saracens sat in fourth place in the league and with an away round of 16 tie against Bordeaux-Begles in the Champions Cup in April.
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Some interesting stats that just proved what my first impression of NZ’s drive to speed up Rugby Union would amount to - fine margins here and there to cut a few seconds off the game and nothing else. To do more there would have to be wholesale changes to the game like doing away with scrums, lineouts and bringing back the ELV’s to have free kicks instead of penalties. Very little chance of it happening but, in the end, Ruby Union would be a 15-man version of Rugby League. There are reasons why Rugby Union is globally more popular that Rugby League and what NZ are also not considering is the unintended consequences of what they want to achieve. This will end up turning Rugby Union into a low value product that will not be acceptable to the paying public. If people really wanted a sped-up version of rugby, then why is Rugby Union globally way more popular than Rugby League? Rugby lovers all over the world are also not stupid and have seen through what NZ are trying to achieve here, selfishly to bring back their glory days of dominance over every other nation and compete with Rugby League that is dominant in Australasia. NH countries just don’t have the cattle, or the fantastic weather needed to play like NZ SR franchises do so good luck to whoever has to try and convince the NH to accept going back to the days of NZ dominance and agreeing to wreck the game in the process. I have serious doubts on the validity of the TV stats presented by GP. All they did was expand the broadcasting base by putting it on free to air, not even any indication of arresting the continued drop in viewership. Match day attendance goes hand in hand with broadcast ratings so if there was an increase in the one you should expect to see it with the other. However, the drop in match day attendance is very evident to the casual highlights package viewer. The only club who looks to be getting solid attendance is the Drua. I am calling it now that NZ’s quest to speed up the game will fail and so will the vote on the 20-minute red card.
Go to commentsIt’s a good, timely wake up call for NZ Rugby (seem to be a few of them lately!) - sort out the bureaucratic nonsense at board level. We can’t expect to stay the number one option without keeping fans/players engaged. We’ve obviously been bleeding players to league for years but can’t let the floodgates open (although I think this headline is hyperbolic as it’s a result of a recent Warriors pathways system where they are tracking things more closely) Understand the need to focus boys on rugby if they’re at a proud rugby school too, don’t think it’s harsh at all re Barakat in Hamilton. Reward the committed players with squad positions. An elite 1st XV system in NZ has done more for league than they even realise, think it’s good to protect our game further.
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