The sight of Billy Vunipola wearing ankle boot outside his team hotel will worry England fans
Billy Vunipola appears increasingly unlikely to play any part in England’s final World Cup group game against France after being spotted on Tuesday outside his team’s hotel wearing an ankle boot to protect the injury.
Vunipola injured his left ankle in Saturday’s bonus-point victory over Argentina and after repeatedly receiving treatment on the pitch, was withdrawn at half-time and has undergone a scan.
While refusing to rule him out of the climax to Pool C against France, attack coach Scott Wisemantel revealed that the Saracens number eight has been doing recovery and rehabilitation work instead of training with the rest of Eddie Jones’ squad.
Having already qualified for the quarter-finals, England are able to make a number of changes knowing Saturday’s clash in Yokohama decides only who finishes top of Pool C.
Vunipola, the team’s most potent forward ball carrier, is the only player to have started all 12 of this year’s Tests and his value to Jones means his fitness will not be gambled on.
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“We’re being overly cautious. If there’s any risk he will not be 100 per cent he won’t play, but I don’t know the outcome of the scan. If there’s any risk, we won’t risk him,” Wisemantel said.
Tom Curry slotted in at No8 when Vunipola limped off against France, but Mark Wilson is favourite to fill the void before the knockout phase begins against Wales or Australia.
Billy has one of those massive boot things on, doesn’t look good regarding his injury from r/rugbyunion
“We still have a luxury of carriers. Billy has been terrific for us, but he missed the autumn recently and Mark Wilson was the player of that series,” scrum-half Ben Youngs said.
“Billy does suck in lots of defenders and he’s a great carrier for us, but those other guys carry the ball differently because of the lines they pick. They are a bit more subtle about where they pop up.
“We’re blessed with some of the back rows that we have got, but we’re very confident they’ll carry us on to the front foot.”
- Press Association
WATCH: England coach Eddie Jones is happy with how his side have performed to date at the World Cup
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Agree, the team isn't really in transition anymore, that happened very early, and looks to have been completed by the Argentina loss, that they fixed the cause of that Foster type result and it didn't happen again.
Disagree with how you want to lock in the team like this. As Cantab suggests the real way this team is going to move forward now is by maximising the talent, and there are plenty of other ways the forward pack could potential be improved, so it is going to need some creative and ingenuitive coaching if ABs are going to prove good enough anymore.
Go to commentsBecause Robertson is allergic to risk-taking. Perofeta and Plummer were never once trialled at First Five-Eight, Beauden was kept at Fullback for like half the season despite having close to ten players over the year who can play that position.
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