Partly with his hands tied by Covid-19 regulations, Jones remained loyal to Vunipola and the Saracen contingent throughout the 2021 Six Nations. Still, Vunipola was a shadow of himself and England crashed to fifth. That summer, Jones met Vunipola at a pub in St. Albans, where he told him he would not be part of his plans for the foreseeable future.
“He said he wanted me to find my best version of myself, and at the time I disagreed with him. But looking back, he was right. That’s where it all started.”
Vunipola sought help outside of his direct support network from his family, Saracens, who he said were “not hard (enough) on me” or even his faith. “I think sometimes I rely too much on[his faith]not to do work. I forgot to do the piece of work,” said Vunipola. “I was blessed with the gift, but I have to work on it. And that’s where this man came in.”
“This man” was a psychologist with whom Vunipola spoke almost every day for six or seven months. “I’ve never really believed in psychologists,” Vunipola said. “But after talking to Eddie, I felt like I needed someone to tell me the honest truth. One of our first conversations was when I complained about my relegation and he basically just said, ‘What can you do about it? “I didn’t say anything.” And he said, ‘What can you do about your rugby’, and I was like, ‘Everything’.
Vunipola became less fixated on external goals like international selection and more focused on rediscovering his intrinsic motivation for loving the sport. “The reason I started playing rugby was because I liked the game; I liked meeting people, tackling people, standing up and mentally fighting it out,” said Vunipola.
“That was probably lost trying to do things outside of rugby. Looking back now, I’m very happy that last year happened because the hunger came back; the hunger to reclaim my place in the England team, but also to play well for Sarries.”