Saracens agree new Manu Vunipola deal with youngster set for key role in Championship campaign

Manu Vunipola is likely to deputise for Owen Farrell for much of relegated Saracens' Championship campaign in 2020/21
Getty Images

Saracens starlet Manu Vunipola has signed a new contract with the club until 2023.

The young fly-half, who is the cousin of England brothers Billy and Mako Vunipola, is the latest Saracens academy player to sign fresh terms and graduate to the first-team squad, following in the footsteps of Joel Kpoku and Sean Reffell.

Since making his senior debut against Harlequins in last season’s Premiership Rugby Cup, Vunipola has earned 21 club caps including debuts in the Premiership and Heineken Champions Cup.

The youngster played a major role in League wins over Gloucester and Sale Sharks, collecting 24 points in total, and kicked a last-minute penalty to secure victory over London Irish back in November.

Vunipola, who has also established himself in the England Under-20s squad, is now expected to play a key role for Saracens in the Championship next season with England captain Owen Farrell set to play only a limited number of games.

“It was an easy decision to re-sign with Saracens,” Vunipola said. “It’s been an awesome season for me with the game time that I have had and the opportunities the coaches have given me has been amazing.

“The club has been incredibly good to me and my family, looked after me and they’ve made me the player I am today.

“I’m just thankful they offered me a contract and I’m lucky to be able to have re-signed with this wonderful club.”

Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall said: “Manu has benefitted greatly over the last 12 months from the exposure he has had to playing in the Premiership and in Europe.

“He has demonstrated that he has both the temperament and skill set to be a very good player and we are obviously delighted that he has chosen to continue his development at the club.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in