Barrington: Losing Mako is huge blow

RICHARD Barring- ton feels the loss of Mako Vunipola is a huge blow to England but remains upbeat about the prop options in Steve Borthwick’s pack

- BEN JAYCOCK

Vunipola was ruled out of England’s 33-man World Cup squad with a back injury.

Fellow loosehead Barrington, who won four Premierships and four Champions Cup titles alongside Vunipola with Saracens before leaving for Agen, says Vunipola’s absence will hurt but is pleased to see Joe Marler recalled.

“Mako’s going to be a massive miss,” Barrington said. “He demands standards on and off the field and for a senior player like him it’s unfortunate. He’s had an unlucky run with injuries throughout his career, missing finals. He missed the Premiership final just gone through injury, he missed the 2014 final and the 2019 final.

“Joe is similar in demanding standards but England will have been desperate to have had Mako out there.”

England have finished outside the top two in the last three Six Nations and failed to impress against Wales last weekend. Nevertheless, Barrington believes England still have useful front row options and says it’s vital that the squad put their poor form behind them.

He said: “They’ve got a great core of players. The Six Nations wasn’t ideal and a few of the international games didn’t go to plan but now they’ve got the team announced, the boys will be more relaxed as I know they are trying to make it a team environment. Hopefully big Billy (Vunipola) can get back firing after his injury and they can get some gain line ball from him, and then they’ve got some dangerous backs.”