Rugby World Cup 2019: Billy Vunipola ‘adapting his game’ after opponents worked him out, says John Mitchell

Billy Vunipola is set to recover from an ankle injury in time to keep his place in the England side against Australia this weekend, but assistant coach Mitchell reveals the extra efforts he’s going to in order to get back to his best

Billy Vunipola, by his own admission, is yet to deliver his best at the Rugby World Cup, but the England forward is undergoing something of a reassessment after being worked out by his opponents, according to coach John Mitchell.

The No 8 looks set to win his battle against an ankle injury to start this Saturday’s quarter-final against Australia, in what will be a large step up in intensity compared to anything that England have faced so far in Japan.

It is fair to say that Vunipola has not looked his normal self at the World Cup so far, with the 26-year-old smashed by Tongan flanker Zane Kapeli in their opening match in a rarely-seen challenge where he came off second-best. He admitted earlier in the tournament that he does not yet feel like he is running at 100 per cent, and even conceded that by reading too many messages telling him he should be careful not to get injured, he was not flying into collisions as he normally would.

But with Vunipola safely coming through training on Wednesday, defence coach Mitchell revealed that the back-row forward is working on ways to adapt his game that his opponents are not expecting, in order to prove he is not a one-trick pony.

“He’s going well,” said Mitchell. “Like any player, he wants to play better. He’s having to make a couple of little adjustments in his game, because players obviously start to read you in terms of what you do. That’s really good awareness from him, to make those adjustments.

“He loves the ball in his hand and his experience is also really, really good amongst the rest of the back-row group. He carries a bit more experience than the others and his willingness to share and care for them has also been really impressive. He’s a guy who is really consistent, but knowing him, he will want to play better.”

One school of thought that Eddie Jones supported two weeks ago is that Vunipola plays much better when his older brother, Mako, is on the pitch with him. The pair have not featured as much together over the last two years due to injuries, with either one or both suffering from long-term lay-offs that have affected them both physically and mentally.

Mitchell doesn’t fully buy into that belief, conceding his knowledge of the Vunipolas is not understanding enough to make a judgement, but he does feel that the giant No 8 reserves his best performances for the biggest games – like the one in Oita this Saturday against the Wallabies.

“I think he likes that, but he goes about it in a very quiet way,” he added. “He’s not a big ‘ra-ra’ guy, he’ll just get on with it. Because he’s been on restricted training activity, in terms of dealing with the injury, he’s chomping at the bit to get out there in training and get the ball in his hands.”

Part of giving Vunipola the ammunition to do that relies on England getting him into the right shape, and that doesn’t mean they need to make him as fit as possible. It has been noticeable how his 20-stone-plus frame has changed over the course of the last year, prompting Jones to hail him as “fitter than ever” earlier this year.

Billy Vunipola is looking at ways to adapt his game after being worked out by opponents (AP)

But Mitchell concedes that England perhaps went too far in trying to cut the Saracens man down, and believe they now have him within his optimum range to get the best out of arguably their most important forward in the World Cup squad.

Mitchell said: “I think he’s at a very optimal body weight. The last campaign, it was too extreme, whereas at the minute he’s at an optimal stage. He’s done very well in the pre-season camp but we’ve tried to keep him at his right body-weight rather than a weight which is manufactured and unnatural for him. If he loses too much weight, it’s not ideal for him.”