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Vunipola the latest to confirm commitment to Championship season with Saracens
By Online Editors
Manu Vunipola is the latest Saracens academy graduate to commit to the club's forthcoming 2020/21 season in the Championship, the young fly-half agreeing terms that will see him stay with the Londoners through to 2023.
Preparing for life in the English second-tier, Saracens have shown their faith in numerous up-and-coming players by offering them extended deals to help them through the novel challenge of next season and beyond. Vunipola now follows in the footsteps of Joel Kpoku and Sean Reffell by agreeing to fresh terms.
Since making his senior debut against Harlequins in last season’s Premiership Rugby Cup, the 20-year-old England U20s player made 21 club appearances, including debuts in the Premiership and Heineken Champions Cup.
A cousin of brothers Mako and Billy Vunipola, the England and Lions forwards who are set to also assistant Saracens in the Championship, Manu played a major role in league wins over Gloucester and Sale Sharks, collecting 24 points in total, and he also kicked a last-minute penalty to secure victory over London Irish last November.
Having been at Saracens since he was a 15-year-old, Vunipola said: “It was an easy decision to re-sign with Saracens. It’s been an awesome season for me with the game time that I have had and the opportunities the coaches have given me has been amazing.
“The club has been incredibly good to me and my family, looked after me and they have made me the player I am today. I’m just thankful they offered me a contract and I’m lucky to be able to have re-signed with this wonderful club.”
Saracens boss Mark McCall added: “Manu has benefitted greatly over the last twelve months from the exposure he has had to playing in the Premiership and in Europe.
“He has demonstrated that he has both the temperament and skill set to be a very good player and we are obviously delighted that he has chosen to continue his development at the club.”
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Latest Comments
GB is England, Scotland, Wales. They are the 3 constituent countries in Great Britain. Ergo playing only those three countries is a tour of GB. The difference between GB and the UK is Northern Ireland. It's not a huge deal to be accurate and call places by their correct name. But please refrain from your idiotic attempts to BS that GB=UK. It doesn't.
Go to commentsThe 2023 draw was only criticized when it became apparent that the top 5 sides in the world were on the same side of the draw. Nowhere did they discuss the decision to backtrack to 2019 rankings which ensured that England and Wales (ranked #12 in 2023) were ranked top4.
The parties who trashed out the schedule were England Rugby, NZ Rugby and ITV. It is bordering on corrupt that a Rugby nation has the power to schedule its opponents to play a major match the week before facing them in a QF.
You won't find commentary by members of the relevant committees because a committee did not make the scheduling decision. I have never heard members of World Rugby speak out on the draw or scheduling issues.
For example in 2015 Japan were hammered by Scotland 4 days after beating SA. The criticism only happens after a cock up.
A fair pool schedule is pretty straightforward: The lowest two tanked teams must play on last pool day but not against each other. That means that TV can focus on promoting big matches with a Tier2 involved for that Friday.
Why does NZ Always get its preferred slot playing the hardest pool match on day 1?
Why do other teams eg France, Ireland, Scotland get so often scheduled to play a hard match the week before the QFs?
If you believe the rules around scheduling are transparent then please point me in the right direction?
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