Billy Vunipola has vowed to heed the lessons of tackle school to kick-start his Rugby World Cup campaign with England.
The Saracens No 8 missed England’s Pool D opener against Argentina after a ban for a high tackle on Andrew Porter in the 29-10 defeat by Ireland on August 19.
The powerful back-row forward had to sit out England’s 27-10 victory over Argentina, then came off the bench as Steve Borthwick’s men defeated Japan 34-12 last weekend.
Vunipola will start Saturday’s third-round clash with Chile in Lille, bidding to step up his World Cup involvement.
And the 71-cap No 8 admitted he gained some valuable pointers from the World Rugby coaching intervention programme – or tackle school – he had to undergo to cut down his suspension by one week.
“There wasn’t much frustration with the ban, I probably had to do my time for the crime I committed,” said Vunipola. “So it was just about getting my head down and helping the team like Kev’s talked about.
“I laughed when Kev talked about fitness, because that was the worst part of not playing, having to do extra fitness. So once you get past that and you know you’re contributing to the team in a different way, you make peace with it.”
He added: “[Match practice] is huge, I think for me the more I can play, the better I am as a player. I think that’s a well-known fact for me personally, and from previous coaches.
“So hopefully I can go out there and play really well, but until we get there, you don’t know.”
Defence coach Kevin Sinfield has emerged as providing the gold standard of World Rugby’s coaching intervention programmes.
Coaches can run players through a one-time tackle school course in order to reduce a suspension by one week. Sinfield was so accomplished at the practice when at Leicester that World Rugby have used several of his sessions as shining examples.
Sinfield takes tackle height extremely seriously, and has repeatedly stressed that England coach technique in short bursts at every session.
Vunipola admitted several elements of the coaching were elementary, but he has already seen the benefit, adding: “When I went through it, Kev is very well rehearsed in running those tackle schools, which is probably not a good thing for me to say,
“For me I did feel a bit like sucking eggs, but it taught me a lot in terms of my technique. He is very good at his job so it only took us one time to do it because when you do it you have to film it.
“I learned a lot about using my arms, and the biggest thing was lowering my height. I am such a big guy I am so used to using my body as a mechanism to stop someone rather than technically getting in the right position.
“It was good for me so hopefully you won’t be seeing any of that anymore.”
Sinfield insisted that England’s tackle height work is just as important to help influence the grassroots game as the professional one.
“We practise tackle skills most days, in short blocks, and we are very smart in the risk and safety and how we employ it,” said Sinfield. “The tackle school has a most specific nature to it. Billy was outstanding in the work he has done, and we have just completed Tom Curry’s as well.
“I have done a number of them now, but these guys are humans and when they are in a competition like this and intense as this, unfortunately players are going to make mistakes.
“We are seeing this at elite level but it is grassroots where we have got to be helping people and keep pushing tackling and also understand sometimes people get it wrong.”
