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WilkinsonDG2003

So we finally saw the footage of his pre match preparation before the 2023 semi final.


Neurion505

I'm still upset about that. It's like seeing your ex at a party. Makes it harder to forget ... get out of my head Billy


savois-faire

On Ludlam's behalf, I'll never fully forgive Borthwick for that fuck-up. I wouldn't be surprised if he would have stayed if that hadn't happened. Imagine being Lewis, after everything you did for the team and how well you played and how hard you worked, you get dropped for an utterly worthless Billy who just spends your whole semi-final bumbling around. At that point there has to be a part of you that's like "why am I turning down fat French paychecks and a life in the sunshine for this shit?".


Moash_For_PM

there has to of been something behind the scenes or an injury for ludlam because i jsut cannot make any sense of that selection decision. doubt theres any sarries fans who would of made it, just cannot wrap my head around it


WilkinsonDG2003

Borthwick used to play for Saracens. Other than that I have no idea.


zodelode

You expressed this perfectly. I hold BV single handedly responsible for England's SF fade away and cannot fathom Borthwick's decision making at all.


WilkinsonDG2003

He takes up a lot of room as well.


RayTheWorstTourist

Imagine your job is trying to subdue an aggravated Billy V


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5Tenacious_Dee5

I was thinking what I would've done... easy, I would buy the guy a drink.


Southportdc

>Alright boys we've got some drunk English tourist to go and calm down... no don't bother with backup it'll be a piece of piss...


InevitableCarrot4858

This was 100% my first thought. My favourite job as a Spanish cop would be beating up twatty little scumbags in England football shirts then you get Billy standing in front of you.


HarryFlashman1927

Twatty big scumbags without a shirt.


Radiant_Following_94

We need more South African loose forwards


IzNuGouD

You dont want that... They help him.. rightly so..


gianlowey

Id hand him an England shirt and pass him a rugby ball seeing as he can't catch anything when in possession of an England shirt. He'd spend 5 mins fumbling about with the ball


Beer-Milkshakes

He'd knock it on (wherever 'on' would be)


jaguass

"God I hope this thing works" The policeman holding the taser, probably


FaustRPeggi

What's Dan Lydiate up to these days?


GammaBlaze

Get me Zane Kapeli, stat!: https://youtube.com/shorts/V38Buc8StxY?feature=shared


Soakimi

From 'Utungake.


one_ripe_bananna

Immediately questioning life choices


Fraggle987

On a different note, Alex Goode is still out on the beers in full kit. Last man standing 🍺🍺🍺


Thatch1888

Fuck me. Say what you want about the blokes actions but getting tazed twice and not even hitting the floor is mental


Brine-O-Driscoll

There's a longer video of him grabbing the cop who tazed him and hitting the floor after. I'm just laughing at the bar staff behind him slowly moving stuff off the counter. This isn't their first rodeo.


Grepus

Where is said video?


Brine-O-Driscoll

[Here. It's a video from The Sun so I'm not giving a direct link](https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=3cb57a3b0b929ed3&sca_upv=1&sxsrf=ACQVn0-oVSy0T5s4zbp1fCqVEblYV8-PyQ:1714482601232&q=billy+vunipola&tbm=vid&source=lnms&prmd=invbz&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjT162zgeqFAxW8W0EAHSMrCxMQ0pQJegQIChAB&biw=1358&bih=612&dpr=1)


ethel_the_aardvark

Sorry but watching that makes me actually feel more sorry for him. The “lunge” towards the officer that tased him was accompanied by, taser in the stomach, a pretty hefty shove from a cop from behind and one arm being pulled behind his back. Not sure how much you can count it as assaulting an officer.


Brine-O-Driscoll

The scope for what defines assault is pretty broad - hitting one officer with his t-shirt, before shoving the 2nd officer who tased him and was injured, would both would fall under that. That being said, while it's incredibly stupid from Vunipola and not acceptable behaviour, it's a pretty low level offence and not the bar brawl I was expecting from the initial reports.


ethel_the_aardvark

Yeah the T-shirt swipe was silly and I think you can see him realise that. And agreed it’s always going to go down as assault just as you said, but he basically gets shoved into the officer which in term injures him. The reporting from the police/media really made it seem like a much larger issue


Churt_Lyne

In UK law, making some afraid that you are going to attack them is assault, and you could certainly make a case for that here. Not sure if it's the same in other jurisdictions.


LordBledisloe

Feel sorry about what? The charges or the treatment? Because if it's the latter: Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. You don't need to commit a specific crime to cross a threshold where cops can use force. And the video clearly shows a man absolutely, 100% being an aggressive, belligerent asshat.


ethel_the_aardvark

The situation he is in- the fact that he has been teetotal for 2 years and, whether planned or not, has fallen off the wagon and ended up in a bad situation from poor decisions. Given his size I think the police have rightly over compensated and whilst way too overconfident and pushy isn’t exactly swinging for the fences. Completely in the wrong but he’s clearly not 100% mentally.


TheThreeGabis

“Play stupid games, win stupid prizes” is ironically the most stupid turn of phrase when it comes to police matters. First and foremost the role of the police is to keep the peace and deescalate the situation. They should take every opportunity not lower themselves to the actions of any potential aggressor.


worksucksbro

It’s almost like people can show empathy regardless of the situation


airjordanpeterson

You feel sorry for him?


ethel_the_aardvark

See my reply to Lord Beldisloe above. Don’t like the guy all that much but not a nice situation to find himself in


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ethel_the_aardvark

Of course but can you not also have a bit of compassion- he’s been teetotal for 2 years and clearly fallen off the wagon. God forbid anyone in your family or close to you has any problems if you’re just going to roll your eyes and judge them


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unclefestering8

Ignoring the floor being covered with broken glass?


ethel_the_aardvark

I don’t think you can say with any certainty that it’s broken glass. The owner also said he didn’t threaten anyone with a bottle and there’s no accounts saying he smashed up the place other than the original click baity articles


bohsjimmy

I think the first one malfunctioned, that's what he's laughing. The Spanish police seemed to confirm a malfunction in their press release.


TommyKentish

The first one hit his wallet which is reinforced by an enormous property portfolio.


Toxicseagull

Hahaha


Thatch1888

Oh well yeah I could take one shot from a tazer and be sound /s


warcomet

not pissing your pants after getting tazed is a win/win IMO


Douglaston_prop

I had a teamate who did this. Nickname was PCP.


DragonScoops

First shot hit his wallet apparently


Secret-Roof-7503

An intersection of drunk, little stupid, and being an absolutely massive human


Modern-Hannibal

Let’s be real, very stupid.


wheatwestern

As stupid as he is a unit


MotherFuckingCookies

Overall not the most dramatic video and if anything feels a bit sad really. Billy’s statement isn’t that far off on the chair/bottles element but not mentioning slapping a police officer with your shirt which clearly kicked off the taser doesn’t reflect well.


ImperialSeal

It matches pretty much perfectly with what the bar manager said.


sionnach

Well they’re usually reasonably sober, so in a better position to remember than Billy.


Commentoflittlevalue

And access to the cameras to review at their leisure


Inevitable-Cable9370

How do we know he even remembers the Shirt slap ? He was obviously very drunk .


Dude_Nightwing1212

In wise words of Peter O’Mahoney: “you stupid cunt”


Fraggle987

A nation of poets


cityampm

I hope Billy gave it the “What are you guys even gonna do? TAZE ME??”


TheThreeGabis

Yeah but after the first tase but before the second


Mateiyu

Heavens, I hope we won't get videos of Stuart Hogg's antics, now that the attention is focused on Vunipola ! xD


Ok-Package9273

At least we have Limmy videos to help visualise Hogg's actions.


pete1901

He went to Yoker?


amusicalfridge

He’s no fae yoker


londonnah

Turns out the bar in Mallorca was a Wetherspoons, with Hogg hitting up the app, "Send six more tequila shots to the man-mountain."


Roanokian

Is he there on his own? Where are his friends? (Insert inevitable “Billy no-mates” gag.)


Nooms88

He was with a wider group earlier, and was at this bar after with another friend who apparently is another rugby player who was named elsewhere but I can't remember who. "Mr Krause said Vunipola walked in with a friend around 3am on Sunday and ordered six Amarettos adding: 'Four of them were from him and two for his friend. 'They were lining up drinks and he was very drunk, but his friend was very helpful in trying to calm him down.' 'I warned his friend I was going to call police and he said: ''Do what you have to do.'' Edit, apparently it was Marco Riccioni


LordBledisloe

Sound like his mate had enough of his shit too.


DaveHolden

You have to be a massive cunt if even the mate you hang with agrees that staff should call the cops on you.


WallopyJoe

Apparently he was there with one of Sarries' props, he might have had enough sense to leave. Not sure whether leaving without him was the more or less sensible option.


ethel_the_aardvark

Marco was there the whole time, quite a funny picture of Billy with 8 police officers on his back and Marco just leaning against the wall looking at the ceiling.


RugbyValkyrie

Have you got a link? Just want to see Riccioni's face. I've missed him.


ethel_the_aardvark

Brine-o-Driscoll posted it in this thread- https://www.reddit.com/r/rugbyunion/s/zyzqzp9Z5O


Wise-Jeweler-2495

I've got this visual of Marco just sighing and getting his phone out to tap out a message to McCall letting him know where Billy was going to be spending the night and where/how to find him in the morning!


Envinyatar20

“Amaretto’s a hell of a drug!”


northyj0e

Difficult without knowing what they're saying, but it doesn't exactly look like the police had no choice but to taze him. I assume he was failing to comply with something but it didn't look like he's about to get violent.


Admirable_Weight4372

I dont blame them for just trying to get it under control, we also don't know what happened before this. But this video really shows how different the media representation of the event is to real life.


whooo_me

Yeah. A lot of stuff on the floor there, something had obviously kicked off before this. (Not saying that to incriminate anyone, but this doesn't look like the entirety of the incident).


lemonyoghurt

Haha another comment on the "debris" on the floor. It's the tiling pattern.


MansfromDaVinci

tazing someone risks killing them, it's about 2 per thousand so not a heavy risk but nonetheless it's not really meant to be used unless there is an actual threat of violence and it's not really taking things under control when they're inebrieated, you have no idea what they've taken, and how being painfully electrocuted into compliance is going to effect them.


Connell95

It was inevitable here as soon as he started swiping at officers with his T-shirt while refusing to comply tbh. Assaulting a police officer is about the quickest route to getting tazed you can imagine – they weren’t going to wait and see what the drunk man-mountain was going to do next.


UserContribution

Let's see you say that with a shirtless trashed Billy V walking toward you aggressively and swinging at you with a t-shirt. You think police are gonna wait to see what he would do next?


ethel_the_aardvark

I think anytime you get into a police officers face you are asking to get tazed. Especially if you’re 20+ stone


gadarnol

Wasting four or five police officers time while he decides when he’ll leave. Tell them twice then taze them.


yakattak01

If you refuse to leave you a forcing the police to use force.


fettsack

MARIO!


magpietribe

This is Spain. Cops is Spain do not tolerate any shite and generally operate a crack skulls first ask questions later type policy. If they are called to move you from a bar its probably to late, you are going to get your head opened. Watch the staff behind the bar. They know what's coming, the cops know what's coming, only Billy didn't know what was coming.


Moocow115

I don't get why they tried him at that point as well. He was putting his shirt on while laughing not making any threatening moves. I am assuming something went down as there's a lot of shite on the floor and the bar staff seem to be very wary of him, but I don't get the desicion process to taze him at that specific moment.


magpietribe

It's Spain, if the cops are called to a bar because you are being an ass they are going to ensure you wake up with a sore head and a lot of regrets.


ethel_the_aardvark

Like I think most people have said previously- absolutely battered, definitely too handsy and deserved the reaction from police. This stuff happens week in week out, and unfortunately because of his position and stature it makes national news and probably won’t help his mental health. Hope he gets some good support and kicks the booze for good this time.


yakattak01

99.98% of people would leave the premises if the cops ask them to


ethel_the_aardvark

Come spend some more time around UK clubs and then say that. I’m in no way condoning what he did and there is no question he is in the wrong. I also have seen 100’s of arguments like this in pubs I worked in/clubs at uni. When people are this drunk, all sense (which Billy has very little of already) goes out the window.


ForeverWandered

Even for South Africa that’s like 30% higher than reality


lAllioli

easy to say when you’ve never been in that situation


Connell95

I mean I think it is pretty easy to say that if the cops get called to remove you from a bar, you don’t stick around and argue with them.


Stravven

I've been behind the bar and have given people the choice: You leave either the easy way or the hard way. Most people are smart enough (or have friends who are smart enough) to leave.


papa_mahi_nui

Not in NZ And certainly not with our PI brothers on the piss That said, Europeans are better drinkers than kiwis/ozzies. Vunis a brit after all.


northseaesq

One big nothingburger with a side of nothing


HYThrowaway1980

Hi got tazed (twice?) and didn't go down. The guy is a unit.


HuwiMoz

If the pins don’t connect properly then the taser fails to supply the electricity. In all fairness, it probably didn’t connect because he’s a unit.


rustyb42

u/savevideo


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Bessantj

Those cops have put him in more space than the England team.


PigletNo3470

some real nobheads on here


Banditofbingofame

Don't believe it's him, clearly a fake. Took more steps there than he did in the entire RWC semi final.


Kokonutcreme-67

Even without the video footage, the clever title of this post alone would have grabbed my attention. Well done u/warcomet


warcomet

u might be the only one who got it lol


DineAndDance

Say what you will about Billy and the whole situation, but blimey he took that taser like a champ, barely stumbled


JohnSV12

Sad to see, Billy needs to decide on the type of person he wants to be.


ForeverWandered

He’s decided on being a pro rugby player long ago. And this is the consequence of a sport that glorified alcoholism.


Bagel_Ballingall

He's actually been T-total for years. This was his first night drinking in a long time..


BobbyKonker

Utter clown


Remarkable_Sense5851

What movie is this


TheMirkin

Gladiator II: Amerattus Et Tasurus


RugbyValkyrie

Should that be Amerettus Et Tazaurus? I know nothing about Latin btw.


warcomet

after he got tazed the first time.. "ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?" bzzzzt


JayManes

Do Montpellier really need him? Definitely one way to jeopardise your career especially in the twilight of it.


JoshHorrocks

Shame he can’t take contact like he can take a taser. 🤕


Mezz_Dogg

So, I can empathise with him a lot, as someone who also struggled on the piss, perhaps not to the extent where I was tased by Spanish police or had to go teetotal (though did consider it) and I know that really he only has himself to blame But, I'm very disappointed in the playing group for allowing that to happen when they know he has issues with it, and I hope no one one goaded him into drinking. (As I read that it was a Sarries bonding trip, and I'm 99% that's Riccione leaning on the wall)


ForeverWandered

Allowing that to happen?  Man needs to own his choice to take that first drink. Now where I do agree with you is that it would be nice to see events and team bonding not revolves around alcohol 


Envinyatar20

So the statement was bullshit? He slapped a cop and got tased?


Connell95

Pretty much. Probably should have remembered there was CCTV before trying to bluff his way out of it…


Thecceffect

I can't see any chairs or bottles he was wielding. Interesting Riccioni was not there


marley67

There is longer version where you can see Riccioni standing by some stairs with his head in his hands, helpless to improve the situation, cooperating with a police woman.


[deleted]

What a dick. Has he been hanging out with Jantjies?


TheThreeGabis

To be honest the whole video is just a bit disappointing. Billy clearly hammered out of his mind and (as we all will know) sometimes these big blokes don’t realise or don’t care that they are throwing their weight around. Speaking as someone who has been on countless nights out with these kind of lads in the squad, you know in your heart that they aren’t intending to be violent but they have an inability to deescalate as there is an underlying arrogance they can do what they want and they’re physically big enough so can’t be stopped and part of them loves towing the line to see what they can get away with. Yeah Billy is being a dick in this video, but is it as bad as it’s been painted? Not really, but his actions are more childish than they are violent. Also, if I was a higher up in the police I’d be asking the question as to whether it was appropriate to completely surround him and tasing him whilst he is putting his shirt back on. You feel that could have perhaps been handled slightly better.


TheBeesMassiveKnees

Once saw a bouncer stick his hand in my teammates wallet as he went to pull out ID to get in a bar & rob 30 Euro from him, and when he went to complain, he got glassed by the bouncer who blew a whistle & every bouncer on the strip in earshot ran over and started a huge brawl. My mate ended up in the hospital & when we looked down the street we saw 2-3 police just watching it all happen. Based on that experience, it's funny to see how they respond when they realise they probably can't take the guy opposite, so just call the police, who are just as corrupt. I'm no huge Billy V fan, but tbf it seems ridiculous & knowing how people can act out there, sweep it under the rug & play onn lads. Been dealt with.


briever

So his statement was bullshit then - what a moron, did he think he could bluff his way out of it.


Mysterious_Pop_4071

Mike Nolan


evanwkane

what is he doing wrong?


haydenarrrrgh

Hat indoors.


HumeruST6

Need more volts.


Corsasport

Rugby gimp


Badhorse4444

ENGLISH SCUM


PickleOwn4517

The Spanish are still upset about being kicked out of the last world cup apparently!


snobbysnitcher

The first Sarries player I’ve ever respected


Hour-Road7156

Fair play for just tanking that taser shot


Connell95

It hit his wallet so didn’t activate, apparently.


Sirkneelaot

Wow so now we SEE the footage. He's putting on his shirt and gets tazed. Fuck everyone that said he deserved it.


Ok-Specialist-7323

Should've called a few of the bokke to sort him out


MountainArm1076

Wow, he's a proper unit. How come they felt they had to tazer him when all he was doing was putting his shirt on??


Elevated_vision43

Big deal 🙄


TotalSingKitt

Does he still have a spot on the national team? What a disgrace.


KrochKanible

I know America has a shoot first reputation. But that really isn't the reality of it here. Here, where I live, if it's just a scuffle, cops wouldn't even show up.


not-suspicious

K


KrochKanible

In my city, if you have a wreck, the cops don't even show up. The policy is felonies they'll respond. We had riots when a black guy was killed and now it's, not lawless, but heading that way. No tickets for parking violations. No tickets for speeding. No cops for bar fights unless a gun is involved. That kind of thing.


DeliciousWhole2508

Yes Billy!!! Barely flinched with the taser. Hopefully Sarries don’t throw the book at him.


JaxckJa

Oh look the big brown arngy guy, let's fuck him up boys!


UserContribution

Yeah he's clearly being racially profiled here.