Rugby World Cup 2019: Eddie Jones defend decision to start Billy Vunipola again for England vs USA

Vunipola has played 761 of 800 possible minutes for England in 2019 and will start his second match of the World Cup, four days after playing a brutal 80 minutes against Tonga

Eddie Jones has defended his decision to select Billy Vunipola for an 11th consecutive England match, with the head coach insisting he is better off playing as much rugby as possible despite the obvious concerns over his injury record.

Vunipola missed all of the 2017/18 international season bar one-and-a-half Tests on the summer tour to South Africa, having suffered extensively from knee injuries and three broken arms.

He has since returned to form and fitness and re-established his place as England’s first-choice No 8 – so much so that Jones has played him for 761 of 800 possible minutes this calendar year, choosing only to replace him in the Six Nations win over France and the World Cup warm-up victory over Italy.

With Vunipola one of five players retained from the side that beat Tonga for Thursday’s Rugby World Cup clash with the United States, Jones insisted that his decision to keep starting the him in the back row was a justified one.

“He loves playing rugby, he’s a rugby player,” Jones said. “The best way to keep him fit is to play him, and he’s an influential player in our team.

“It’s a risk him going out and eating Kobe beef tonight! It’s much better he plays rugby than goes out and eats beef.

“He loves rugby, loves playing, he wants to play.”

While Vunipola remains in the side, the likes of Manu Tuilagi, Jamie George and Sam Underhill have been rested from the matchday squad, with Jones making 10 changes to the starting line-up and bringing hooker Jack Singleton and Mark Wilson onto the bench to ensure he has selected every player available across their opening two games – though Mako Vunipola and Jack Nowell remain unavailable through injury.

“We have a squad of 31,” Jones expanded. “We have a plan for each player, some need to play a lot of rugby, some players are much better playing games every so often, and we have tried to manage the squad individually. We manage also in terms of what we need for each game to make sure we get the desired result.”

Jones confirmed that Mako Vunipola and Nowell remain on target to return to action against Argentina next week, as will Henry Slade, who missed out on selection against the USA having initially been slated to start after suffering a bang to his previously injured knee against Tonga.

“He got a bit of a knock on his knee and decided not to risk him,” Jones added. “We want him right for the next game.”