Following a year out of the England team, iIt wasn’t an easy return for Billy Vunipola as England lost their first test in over six years to the Aussies, and his father was having none of it.
“He sent me a really long message saying how disappointed he was with my performance, how he had been excited to see me play and just felt flat after the game because he hadn’t seen the person he thought was going to turn up,
“I wanted him to not send me another message like that. That was one of the small motivating factors. But the biggest one was for myself. I wanted to go out there and put my best foot forward.”.
Not wanting to receive feedback like that from his father again, Billy ensured he put in a truly incredible performance in the following two tests to wrap up a 2-1 series win.
Grading every England player’s 2022 summer tour
Grading every England player:
PROPS
Ellis Genge - A*
Will Stuart - B
Mako Vunipola - C
Joe Heyes C
HOOKERS
Jamie George - B
Luke Cowan-Dickie - C-
SECOND-ROW
Ollie Chessum - B
Maro Itoje - C
Jonny Hill - A
Nick Isiekwe - C
BACK-ROW
Sam Underhill - E
Tom Curry - C
Billy Vunipola - A
Lewis Ludlam - C
Courtney Lawes - B
Jack Willis - D
SCRUM-HALVES
Danny Care - F
Jack van Portviellt - A
FLY-HALVES
Marcus Smith - D
Owen Farrell - B
CENTRES
Joe Marchant - E
Guy Porter - D
BACK-THREE
Freddie Steward - A*
Tommy Freeman - C
Joe Cokanasiga - F
Henry Arundell - B
Jack Nowell - B
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