Mako Vunipola warns England’s established stars to raise their game or face the chop by Eddie Jones

Getty Images

Recalled England prop Mako Vunipola has warned that he and England’s other established names need to raise their game to avoid the chop by Eddie Jones.

Jones gave captain Owen Farrell a very public vote of confidence on Tuesday despite an under-par performance in last weekend’s 11-6 defeat to Scotland, insisting a one-off poor game for his country would not result in him culling the 89-cap fly-half.

But Vunipola, one of two players to return to the 28-man squad ahead of the Italy game along with Kyle Sinckler, warned Jones would be ruthless if England did not improve against the Azzurri.

Vunipola, who is back following an Achilles injury, said: “The main thing is to keep improving. Eddie is not shy of chopping and changing.

“You’ve got to keep up with the rest of the squad. There’s a lot of new boys coming in now. The key is for the older players to keep improving. The second we fall behind that’s when Eddie is ready to get the players better than us.”

Farrell is expected to keep his place in England’s starting line-up but Jones could yet opt to reinstall George Ford at fly-half and move Farrell back to inside centre.

And Vunipola predicted England’s points machine – Farrell is approaching 1,000 points in Test rugby – would return to being a talisman at the weekend.

“The only way I think you can react as a player is to lead by example. Some like Faz do that day in, day out not just in games… leading from the front. He’s done that for as long as I’ve played with him. It will be no different this week.”

Getty Images

The Saracens players had come into the match with limited to no game time, and the rustiness showed with Vunipola’s brother, Billy, among those to have a less complete performance than usual.

As for fraternal advice to pick him up, the Saracens loosehead said: “For him in my playing with him and him being my brother, the less he thinks and the more he goes out there free to play his normal game [the better]. He’s a big player for us. He gives us a lot not just by the way he is on the field but off the field as well.”

Vunipola and Sinckler will add a wealth of experience to the match-day squad in a pack that struggled against an increased physicality from Scotland.

Vunipola said it was important England “don’t get too low when they lose and too high when they win” but backed the forwards to bounce back against Italy, a side England have never lost to.

As for his own readiness, he said: “In terms of match fitness, I’ve still got a bit to get there but I’m fit and ready if called upon.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in