Vunipola pleased to earn Rugby World Cup spot
Englands Billy Vunipola gets tackled by Wales Ross Moriarty - Credit: PA Wire/PA Images
Saracens Billy Vunipola earned his prize ticket of being included in Eddie Jones’ 31-man England World Cup squad after playing an inspirational role during the 33-19 victory over Six Nations champions Wales at Twickenham.
The 26-year-old began the scoring for the hosts on four minutes after bulldozing over the line for the first of three first-half tries.
Further penalties from George Ford and a drop goal from new Saracens recruit Elliot Daly three minutes from time denied the Welsh a 15th straight win and the world number one spot.
Daly, along with fellow Sarries team-mates Jamie George, Maro Itoge, George Kruis, Jack Singleton, Owen Farrell and Mako Vunipola, were also included in the England squad to compete in the forthcoming tournament in Japan.
And Vunipola praised his colleagues saying: "Today was the perfect example of a game that could have gone away from us.
You may also want to watch:
"We stayed in the fight and we managed to come out with the win but you can never read too much into these warm-up games.
"I know everyone's been calling them 'Tests' and they are Tests but Wales under that pressure probably perform to their peak level.
Most Read
- 1 Covid, O2, police, village square, Notting Hill Genesis and the Suburb
- 2 Pictures: Fun for families as the snow arrives on Hampstead Heath
- 3 Women attacked by wrench-wielding man in Hampstead
- 4 South Hampstead neighbours mourn tree felled by Storm Christoph
- 5 Keeping your distance: Hampstead joggers and creperie crowds
- 6 Buyers claim luxury flats are 'nightmare' construction site
- 7 Haverstock Hill cycle lanes order scrapped by Camden Council
- 8 'Big victory,' says man behind Haverstock Hill cycle lanes legal challenge
- 9 The snow is beautiful and fun - but during Covid we must stick to the rules
- 10 Camden residents offered symptom-free Covid testing
"We played well in patches but there's still room for improvement. Having a structured game probably suits us more than unstructured and I think for most of that game we stuck to it. There were times when Wales crept into it but they are a great side and that's always going to happen.
"The most pleasing thing is that we stayed on top of it and made sure we didn't lose proper control of it."
