In Vannes, the good air of Brittany for Mako Vunipola

He wanted somewhere else. After ten years spent wearing the Saracens jersey, a club with which he won everything, Mako Vunipola, 33 years old and 79 caps, wanted to take on one last challenge. And what a challenge. By joining RC Vannes in the summer of 2024, the pillar of the XV de la Rose surprised everyone.

Always accustomed to playing the leading roles, the 2019 world vice-champion, who has only known, so to speak, the summits, has left his comfort zone and now finds himself playing the role of maintaining himself in a very club. just promoted. “I wanted to experience something new. I felt like I had seen a bit of what I could do in England. And as I know that the time during which I will still be able to play Rugby is very short, it was a bit now or never”he explains, in comments reported by RugbyPass .

“The guys welcomed me with open arms”

If in the past, some English people who came to play in France often had difficulty integrating, he very quickly adapted to life in France and already feels at home within the Breton club: “The reception has been incredible. The guys and everyone here really welcomed me with open arms”he says in West France .

His little brother, Billy Vunipola, playing for Montpellier, also underlined his eldest's love for his new training, in an interview for The Team early October: “He is very happy in Vannes”. And as a symbol, it was he who scored the Breton club's first try in the elite, last August against Stade Toulousain. A way to assert your ambitions, and to show your new teammates the way forward.

A great start to the season

13 matches played out of 15 since the start of the season and already 669 minutes in the legs. Mako Vunipola clearly did not come to make up the numbers in Morbihan and brings all his experience to a rather young squad (26 years old on average). A man with a gigantic record (three Six Nations Tournaments, three Champions Cups and five English championships…), discreet, hardworking and rigorous, targeted by the leaders of the Breton club to remain in the elite.

And Vannes recruitment has something to be satisfied with. In each sector of the game, in the scrum, in the rucks, in his activity and in the fight, the international pillar has been imperial since the start of the season. Facing the reigning champion from Toulouse, Vunipola particularly undermined his opposite number Dorian Aldegheri, collecting no less than three penalties in closed scrums.

Of the four Vannes victories since the start of this 2024-2025 financial year, the 33-year-old has always been a starter, contributing greatly to his team's success. So much so that many specialists speak of him as the best rookie of this Top 14 season. A championship which seems to please him and of which he continues to sing the praises: “In the Top 14, danger comes from everywhere. I learned to always be alert”he says in the columns of Rugby Rama .

There's a reason I'm here

Mark Vunipola

“One of the reasons why I was brought in was in the hope that I would share some of the experience that I bring”explained Mako Vunipola, at a press conference, before the match against Union Bordeaux-Bègles during the month of November. At 33 years old and with an extremely extensive track record, there is no doubt that the former Saracens player has many things to bring to his training, and must be an exemplary teammate. The Englishman is aware of this and affirms that he also has a lot to prove, by discovering a new club, a new championship but also a new rugby: “I try to do that as much as I can but obviously I’m also trying to learn.”.

This Sunday against Clermont, the international pillar of the XV de la Rose will once again have to guide his team towards essential success in the race to maintain, in a Stade de La Rabine already won over to his cause. “I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason and so there is a reason why I am here. I still have to discover it”. Participating in the history of Breton rugby by allowing RC Vannes to remain in the Top 14, this is perhaps the destiny of the English pillar…