21-year-old Saracens prop Mako Vunipola is expected to be included in the England squad for the November internationals to be named on Thursday.
The 130 kg, New Zealand-born son of former Tonga international Fe'ao Vunipola, has widely been touted as the likely replacement for Alex Corbisiero, who is not due to return to action from a knee injury until mid-November.
On Thursday England coach Stuart Lancaster will also announce replacements for Ben Foden, Tom Croft and Rob Webber, who have all been ruled out of the Tests against Fiji, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.
Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall believes Vunipola is ready to make the step up to Test rugby having already played for England U18s and the U20s although he missed the whole of last season through injury.
"He has risen to every challenge he has had so far," said McCall.
"He has played some big games for us and is an outstanding young talent.
"Corbisiero's injury opens the door for Mako. But Mako is more than ready, he is as good a rugby-playing loosehead as I have come across."
Comments
heart_of_oak says...
APV1 - I know and it's beginning to annoy me mightily. I really want to see a fit Lawes playing for England and the B&I Lions. I'm not so worried about Hartley as I think we have some decent replacements. My guess is that SL will put Parling and Botha in the 2nd row with Palmer to come on if needed. But none of these guys are as good as Lawes, though they work hard. You could never accuse them of laziness. It's just that Courtney gets through twice the work that they do.
What's the latest on Attwood ?
Posted 09:02 31st October 2012
APV1 says...
@ heart_of_oak - and now half of them are crocked and we're calling up replacements for the replacements.
Posted 17:15 29th October 2012
heart_of_oak says...
Trader2 - nice one :-) Finally something to make me laugh about this topic. He's Welsh but if he supports England then he's living on borrowed time. Anyway, I expect a whole raft of indignation about Luke Charteris (born in Cornwall), Dan Lydiate, Jonathan Davies - both born in England and of course Faletau, born.... now where was it ???
Actually, no, I don't expect any such complaints or indignation because we'll never stop the trolls baiting the English because it's such fun.
As APV1 said on another thread, it's best (if we possibly can) to ignore it. If we don't ignore it, then we feed it (as I'm probably doing now). But I intend to focus on the team and team selections now, leaving nationality aside.
Vunipola looks a great prospect. The Sarries scrum is one of the best in the league. But we also have a good prospect in Marler as well. On t'other side of the scrum, we have Cole who looks world class. With Lawes and Wood back, we have the makings of a great scrum.
Our back line, in particular, FH and inside centre are problem positions. I think Lancaster has been too conservative not to consider Burns and Twelvetrees. Flood in my opinion, can be good but is inconsistent.
Posted 12:04 27th October 2012
Trader2 says...
heart_of_oak
I thought Jones was Welsh born but supports England, surely a hangable offence in Wales? Maybe he just supports anyone who plays NZ
Please don't tell me he was born out of wedlock in NZ after his Mum had to go there to avoid the shame!
Posted 02:33 27th October 2012
Trader2 says...
TVaddict
Agreed it is stupid argument but I trust you understand the annoyance of NZ supporters as this has been going on for decades. Only in the last few years have they had a chance to get "some of their own back" and of course some will go over the top. As to the rules, as you say a difficult one, if you stick tp country of birth and one parent that would probably be okay, however as you point out residency is very trickey, I don't know the answer to that one but I do believe that once you have represented your country in any team (lets say U-20's and above) then that should be it.
Mate when you come up with a solution, let me know but it is a difficult one for the powers to be thats for sure.
Posted 02:25 27th October 2012
heart_of_oak says...
Trader2 - thanks for your lesson about Stephen Jones. Now then, have you checked where he comes from ?
Posted 11:53 26th October 2012
TVaddict says...
@Trader2
Yeah, totally agree. I feel strongly about this topic regardless of the country involved, so naturally I've never agreed with Stephen Jones or the trolling posters on here. How about we both agree to disagree to argue against these comments no matter what country is involved? So whether it's a New Zealand player, England players, Australian player, we'll argue against all the rubbish the ignorant spew.
With that all said I do have problems with the current system. I would never of allowed Hape to play for England as he'd played internationally for New Zealand already. I actually don't think blood ties are that important, why should it be? So maybe only first degree (mother and father) county ties should be considered. Also, maybe the residency rule should be 3 years for those under 24 (i.e. moved to the country when 21) and 6 years if older? Who knows...it's a very complicated and emotional issue. An issue that is not to be taken lightly and I prefer a more lenient system until a perfect system is put into place.
Posted 22:54 25th October 2012
paulynz says...
@TVaddict
Good article, couldn't agree more.
Now substitute New Zealand for England. Then substitute Mako Vunipola for any one of the 4 Fijians, 12 Samoans, 5 Tongans and the 1 American Samoan that has played test match rugby for New Zealand since 1990. Then substitute 2 days for more than 20 years.
I think we've earned our dig. Difference is, we'll probably let it go after a few days.
Anyway good luck to the young fella. Haven't seen him play so looking forward to that...
Posted 19:59 25th October 2012
APV1 says...
@ Trader2 - loathed though I am to admit it, you've got it spot on.
Posted 17:58 25th October 2012
paulynz says...
Ahhhhhhhh, the irony...
Mako Vunipola, what a fine English name. Is that of the Antipodian Vunipola's?
Just gotta laugh.
Come out, come out wherever you are Stephen Jones...
Posted 17:25 25th October 2012
heart_of_oak says...
8intx
It isn't just the wingers. Check out where Luke Charteris, Jonathan Davies, Dan Lydiate and Toby Faletau were born to name a few.
As if it matters....
If they qualify for Wales, why the hell shouldn't they play for Wales ?
But you won't hear complaints about Wales. It's not fun baiting the Welsh. It's great fun to bait the English. So we either respond or try to ignore it. One thing is for sure. It's not going to stop.
Posted 16:01 25th October 2012
Trader2 says...
TVaddict
I feel beaten up; my comment was just to say look out all the nationality funsters will be on this one. However your comments indicate you have no idea of how all this started, so a little history lesson.
20 years or so ago an alleged journalist Stephen Jones who I am sure you know, kept harping on about NZ poaching, pinching or stealing Pacific Islanders for the All Blacks. He was joined by a few other British hacks and some of them are still at it. Now the fact is that this just didn¿t happen and these facts are now available for all to see. Of course over the years some NH rugby fans who have never had an original thought in their life jumped on the Jones and others bandwagon and this ¿it must be true¿ brigade have been at it ever since. This includes Australian sporting journo¿s and ex ARU CEO¿s who should know better. Of course with sites like PR etc everyone now has an opportunity to hold these journalists accountable and even Jones has gone quiet on this topic of late. In the past there has not been a platform to refute some of the crap that is written in newspapers, now, through PR and others there is that platform
.
Now consider please the NZ born Islanders who became All Blacks over the last 20 years or so!!! How did they feel, that¿s right exactly how you very eloquently describe it except they were for the most part actually born in NZ. I agree with you the English boys are English (well at least the ones who haven¿t played senior rugby elsewhere anyway) and that¿s the end of it but I am sure you can see the hypocrisy of so many NH posters we get in this site in regard to New Zealand¿s born and bred Islanders.
It is time for this argument to be put to bed and for our NH friends to accept the facts and not believe press BS.
Posted 14:46 25th October 2012
crunchfit says...
@LondonWasp
It's not the picture. He actually much older than he is. Some fairly deep wrinkles for a man of 21.
Posted 12:53 25th October 2012
heart_of_oak says...
Melkiwi - excellent post, you are 100% right. Your logic won't stop the boring berks from their bating though. Because that's what it is - England baiting. They love it. In fact, I think that they need it. Probably their sad little lives are so dull that England baiting is the only fun they get.
Posted 12:48 25th October 2012
TVaddict says...
@jonesy2, @Isograford, @jmanngod, @leebok, @Trader2
How innocent of me that that I hadn't even considered that people would post comments like this. Since he's been here since he was 7 he has learnt all his rugby here. Since he's played at every age grade for England he has the right to go on to play for the full England team no?
You guys disgust me. You are disgrace to all of the good work multiculturalism and diversity has done. Do you have no empathy? Have you stopped to consider what he's gone through in his life? At the age of 7 moving to a new country, and new school with new friends. He might have felt an outside at first, but gradually he found some good friends and started to integrate fully into the life here. Then at the age of 21 after spending 14 years here (considering your comments I better do the maths for you, that's 2/3 of his life) he decides he's more connected to England than Tonga or New Zealand. So he's going to go and play in a team where with some of his team mates that he has probably been with since England under 18s. But now suddenly you want to tell him he's not English and that he can't represent us? Can you not see why that is wrong?
I suppose you guys are probably just trolling, but the sooner generation which is angry about immigrants dies off the better for humanity.
@jonesy2
Although I'd loath to ruin your amusement we are a nation of millions of immigrants. I know few English people these days who have an entirely 'pure' English background if purity is what your interested in. But is this not a good thing?
@LondonWasp
lol, yeah, I completely agree! When I've pointed him out to people in the past they've guessed he was in his 30s!
Posted 10:52 25th October 2012
APV1 says...
Here's my matchday squad (in brackets = bench cover - yes, I know Farrell's there twice):
Cole Hartley Marler (Vunipola Youngs Wilson)
Parling Lawes (Palmer)
Dowson Robshaw (c) Morgan (Johnson)
Care (Youngs)
Flood (Farrell)
JTH Tuilagi (Farrell)
Ashton Sharples
Brown (Allen)
Posted 10:34 25th October 2012
APV1 says...
ENGLAND SQUAD FOR QBE INTERNATIONALS
FORWARDS (17)
Mouritz Botha (Saracens)
Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers)
James Haskell (London Wasps)
Phil Dowson (Northampton Saints)
Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints)
Tom Johnson (Exeter Chiefs)
Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints)
Joe Marler (Harlequins)
Ben Morgan (Gloucester Rugby)
Tom Palmer (London Wasps)
Geoff Parling (Leicester Tigers)
Chris Robshaw (Harlequins)
Mako Vunipola (Saracens)
Thomas Waldrom (Leicester Tigers)
David Wilson (Bath Rugby)
Tom Wood (Northampton Saints)
Tom Youngs (Leicester Tigers)
BACKS (15)
Anthony Allen (Leicester Tigers)
Chris Ashton (Saracens)
Brad Barritt (Saracens)
Mike Brown (Harlequins)
Danny Care (Harlequins)
Lee Dickson (Northampton Saints)
Owen Farrell (Saracens)
Toby Flood (Leicester Tigers)
Alex Goode (Saracens)
Jonathan Joseph (London Irish)
Ugo Monye (Harlequins)
Charlie Sharples (Gloucester Rugby)
Manusamoa Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers)
Jordan Turner-Hall (Harlequins)
Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers)
Posted 10:25 25th October 2012
APV1 says...
He's qualified, so stop being idiots. Your own team's squad had "imports" as you would class them.
Stones.
Houses.
Glass.
An the squad has been announced and he is included. So ner-ner-ne-ner-ner!
Posted 10:24 25th October 2012
chesh10 says...
tbh i think he's lived almost his entire life in the UK, including a large chunk of it playing just over the border in Wales (same mini's club as Toby Faletau - tht would have been scary)
he's played for all Eng. age groups, the mention of his birth is just PR doin a lil bit o s*it stirring...its a non issue
Posted 10:22 25th October 2012
8intx says...
Jonesy2
Guessing your welsh, wanna check where your wingers were born?
Posted 09:51 25th October 2012