Saracens hopeful after Vunipola hamstring scare
Saracens' Mark McCall has eased concerns over the fitness of Billy Vunipola after the number eight pulled up in training.
The powerful back-row forward returned from a fractured forearm suffered in January to feature in the 51-14 victory over London Irish on Sunday.
There were fears the 25-year-old had swiftly fallen victim to yet another fitness setback after he experienced an issue on Wednesday.
And while Vunipola is indeed set to miss Saturday's regular-season Premiership finale against Gloucester, Saracens' director of rugby McCall claimed his star should be back for the team's subsequent last-four showdown against Newcastle Falcons or Wasps.
"[The hamstring] hasn't been pulled or anything, as far as I know," McCall was quoted as saying by the BBC.
"There are two and a half weeks until the semi-final, so all things considered it's probably best he doesn't play this weekend.
"If anyone has a hamstring tightness on Wednesday, it wouldn't be the most sensible thing to play him [on Saturday].
"Maybe having not played rugby for a long time, these kind of things can happen quite easily."
After Vunipola missed the Six Nations, England coach Eddie Jones will hope to have him back for three Tests away to South Africa in June.
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Think it was a great defensive performance by Northampton. They didn't have stage fright in the first half, the Nienaber defense smothered them. They limited Leinster to 15-3 in the first half. It could have been over by then. A great try from Leinster in the start of the second half looked to have sealed it. But Byrne missed another conversion. Northampton started trying little kicks behind the Leinster wingers. Leinster messed one and Smith brilliantly made the conversion. Leinster decided to tighten the game after Byrne missed a straight forward penalty. A few errors got NH into the 22 and they scored and converted with a few minutes left. Another brilliant steal from Lawes saw NH have a final attack which was turned over by Conan. A classic semi final. World record attendance of 82,300. Leinsters 3 week preparation warranted for this one.
Go to commentsJust came back from the game and the atmosphere was amazing. Players stayed afterwards for more than a hour to sign stuff and take photos with fans. Great day out.
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