Billy Vunipola says time away from home and a socially-distanced training camp is worthwhile in order to experience England's evolving style first-hand.

Players cannot mix indoors and only go home twice during the six-week event.

"I would rather be here. This team is moving in different ways and I want to be moving in the same way," he said.

Coach Eddie Jones has spoken about England adding to the effective but unspectacular style that won them the Autumn Nations Cup at the end of last year, with uncapped pair Harry Randall and Paolo Odogwu eye-catching selections in his squad.

Prop Joe Marler, who has three young children, won't be involved in England's campaign after opting to stay home and "do right by my family in these crazy times".

Vunipola, 28, is the one Saracens player in the squad to have played rugby since the Autumn Nations Cup.

Relegated to the Championship because of breaches of the top-flight's salary cap, Saracens have been restricted to a single friendly - a defeat against Ealing Trailfinders - so far in a season hampered by the pandemic.

Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje, Jamie George and Elliot Daly sat out the fixture, with only Vunipola playing.

"I'm 20 kilos heavier than all of them!" he told BBC Sport when asked why he needed to play to maintain his match sharpness.

"You can never replicate a game in terms of the contacts, getting off the floor, getting into position.

"I need that game to get my eye in. It's not something I have to have but it's something I feel better having under my belt.

"Other teams aren't getting many games. Everyone is making a big song and dance about us not having game-time, but we are probably not far off everyone else."

England will be based at a hotel in Teddington which has been kitted out to comply with the tournament's strict anti-Covid protocols.

Team meetings take place outside in open-sided marquees, with players provided with thermal gloves, snoods and blankets to protect them against the cold.

Players can use an outdoor games area, which includes a giant chess set, table tennis, fire pits and a coffee machine, while maintaining 2m social distancing rules.

However Vunipola revealed that players have been mostly socialising virtually, playing console games together online.

"I have heard a lot of shouting and grunts of frustration, so I know a lot of them are gaming together," he said.

"When you are all linked up and you are talking to three or four lads and everyone is doing it, you are staying in the mix."