Billy Vunipola

Saracens were relegated to the English second division in 2020 for breaching the salary cap. Billy Vunipola was a British and Irish Lions-era England No 8 with three European Cups and he stayed, played the Championship season, and scored twice across the two-legged final that took them back up.

No 8 at Montpellier, 1.91m and 134kg, and 33 years old.

Born in Sydney to the Tonga international Fe’ao Vunipola, he grew up outside Newport in south Wales after his father moved to play for Pontypool. His brother Mako played for England and now plays at Vannes. Taulupe Faletau grew up alongside them.

Wasps gave him a debut at nineteen, in January 2011. Saracens signed him in 2013, and what followed was one of the most decorated club careers of the era: the Premiership in 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2023, the European Cup in 2016, 2017 and 2019, and the Championship title of 2021.

England capped him 74 times for nine tries. He played three World Cups, reached the final in 2019 and finished third in 2023, and won the Grand Slam in 2016 with further titles in 2017 and 2020. Eddie Jones left him out of the 2022 Six Nations and recalled him for that summer’s tour of Australia.

France came in 2024. His first two seasons in the Top 14 brought a Challenge Cup in 2026 and a losing French championship final in the same year, which is more silverware than the club had managed in most decades.

The heaviest carrier of his generation, and at 33 still the man a side gives the ball to when it needs to get over the gainline and nothing else is working.