Billy Vunipola plots Saracens’ route to European Champions Cup final

'We want to get out of this pool having won all our games'

Billy Vunipola has set his sights high after scoring Saracens’ first try in their big win over Ulster (Reuters)

Billy Vunipola made a famous faux pas during the World Cup when he was unaware that bonus points were in play in England’s pool. But the hard-running Saracens No 8 finished Saturday’s 33-17 win over Ulster –in which he scored his side’s first try – in no doubt about how his club will approach this weekend’s concluding European Champions Cup pool match away to Toulouse.

“It is a massive game for us because we want to get out of this pool having won all our games,” said Vunipola.

The statement has implications because there is a new format determining the possible path to the final in Lyon in May. With five wins from five so far in Pool One – matched only by Leicester in Pool Four – Saracens are already assured of a home quarter-final in April.

That will be played at Allianz Park if Saracens can negotiate a temporary hike in capacity from 10,000 to 15,000 as the competition regulations demand.

The higher the ranking a team has among the eight qualifiers, the easier their quarter-final draw. Thereafter, the open draw to determine home country advantage in the semi-finals has been done away with. Instead, the venues for the last-four matches will be subject to another process of seeding.

Vunipola was one of eight Saracens players named in the England squad last week and he and his brother Mako, plus Jamie George, Maro Itoje and George Kruis were part of a Saracens pack who comfortably quelled Ulster.

Eddie Jones was watching and the younger Vunipola said he was relishing the physical and mental challenges being promised by the new England head coach.

“What scares me the most is that England’s training camp in Denver last summer was my breaking point, so if he [Jones] takes us to that place again it is not going to be fun at all, but I definitely won’t be complaining,” Vunipola said.