{"id":19558,"date":"2024-01-12T20:10:27","date_gmt":"2024-01-12T17:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/19558\/england-prop-mako-vunipola-32\/"},"modified":"2024-01-12T20:10:28","modified_gmt":"2024-01-12T17:10:28","slug":"england-prop-mako-vunipola-32","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/?p=19558","title":{"rendered":"England prop Mako Vunipola, 32, retires from internationals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>England prop Mako Vunipola, 32, retires from internationals\u060c<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-meta\">\n<ul class=\"authors\">\n<li class=\"mugshot-shown\">\n<div class=\"author-img\"><\/div>\n<p>Tom Hamilton, lead writer<span class=\"timestamp \">January 12, 2024, 4:19 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"author-overlay\">Close<\/p>\n<ul>\u2022 Joined ESPN in 2011<br \/>\u2022 Covered two Olympic Games, two <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/rugby\/\"   title=\"Rugby\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">Rugby<\/a> World Cups and two British and Irish Lions tours<br \/>\u2022 Former rugby editor, then senior editor in 2018<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>England prop Mako Vunipola has announced his retirement from international rugby.<\/p>\n<p>The 32-year-old&#39;s decision ends a Test career which saw him <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/win\/\"   title=\"win\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">win<\/a> 79 caps.  He has also won nine caps for the British &#038; Irish Lions, playing in nine successive test matches across the 2013, 2017 and 2021 tours.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8211; From &#39;wounded arena&#39; to &#39;cultural architect&#39;, Andy Farrell was destined to lead the Lions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>He will continue to play for the Saracens club, but Vunipola leaves behind a superb legacy as one of the best props to play for England.<\/p>\n<p>His stint in the national free team began in 2012 and he ended up playing 11 years in the top tier where he won the Grand Slam in 2016 and further Six Nations titles in 2017 and 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Vunipola was also part of the England squad that reached the 2019 World Cup final alongside his brother Billy.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline inline-photo full\">\n<figure><picture><source data- media=\"(min-width: 376px)\"><source data- media=\"(max-width: 375px)\"><img class=\" lazyload lazyload\" data-image-container=\".inline-photo\" height=\"320\" width=\"570\"\/><\/source><\/source><\/picture><figcaption class=\"photoCaption\">Mako Vunipola won 79 caps for England and is one of the greatest props to have played for his country. <cite>Ben Whitley\/PA Images via Getty Images<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cIt has been an honor to have represented my country but all good things must come to an end,\u201d Vunipola said on Instagram.  \u201cIt\u2019s time to step back now. There have been a lot of ups and downs.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I would love to thank everyone who has helped me along my journey. To my wife Alex Vunipola, thank you for taking care of our family and for all your support. Words don&#39;t do it justice.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To my parents, I am forever grateful for everything you sacrificed for me to be here. Malo aupito and Ofa atu. God is good.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Vunipola becomes the fourth player to announce his international retirement in the last three months.  Courtney Lawes, Ben Youngs and Jonny May all retired after the Rugby World Cup.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>England prop Mako Vunipola, 32, retires from internationals\u060c Tom Hamilton, lead writerJanuary 12, 2024, 4:19 p.m. Close \u2022 Joined ESPN in 2011\u2022 Covered two Olympic Games, two Rugby World Cups and two British and Irish Lions tours\u2022 Former rugby editor, then senior editor in 2018 England prop Mako Vunipola has announced his retirement from international [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19559,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[666,9131,9129,2111,1395,9130],"class_list":["post-19558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","tag-england","tag-internationals","tag-mako","tag-prop","tag-retires","tag-vunipola"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19558"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19560,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19558\/revisions\/19560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}