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There's a reason Mako Vunipola is flogged - his remarkable carrying statistics
By Ian Cameron
For all the talk of ‘new breed’ props in the professional era – with ten percent body fat and the ability to shift like a centre – by-in-large props tend to be firmly rooted to the bottom of carrying stats.
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Yet there are outliers – and Mako Vunipola is one.
This week much has been made of the apparent overuse of the older Vunipola, who has played in every game for Saracens since England’s Six Nations campaign.
His selection against Bath on the weekend is apparently a technical breach of the Professional Game Agreement (PGA), which was signed in 2016 and states “Those [players] who play throughout the Six Nations, and pass a threshold of minutes played, will have one weekend off in the four weeks following the competition,” although the RFU don’t appear to have much of a problem with it.
Vunipola came off the bench in Saracens 24-11 win over Harlequins on March 24th, a week after England’s final Six Nations game against Ireland at Twickenham.
He also started in the club’s Champions Cup 30-19 defeat to Leinster on April 1st, followed by the 63-13 win at Northampton last weekend.
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In contrast to Vunipola, Maro Itoje has been left out of the Saracens squad this weekend, having also met the rest requirements.
However, there’s good reason for the repeated selection of the loosehead – his phenomenal carrying work rate.
While of course he’ll always be in the shadow of No.8 brother Billy in terms of carrying, the prop has quietly gone about the business of becoming one of the Premierships most effective and heavily used frontrow carriers.
According to Opta, the older Vunipola’s 20 carries against Leinster were the most by a prop in the Champions Cup since Opta began recording this data in the 2009/10 season.
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2⃣0⃣ – Mako Vunipola's 20 carries against Leinster were the most by a prop in the @ChampionsCup since Opta began recording this data (2009/10-). Tireless. pic.twitter.com/WbpbnE053E
— OptaJonny (@OptaJonny) April 3, 2018
The 5’10, 130kg New Zealand born Vunipola has made 273 carries so far this season, for a combined 471 metres for an average carry of 1.7 metres.
The modest 1.7 metres per carry should be taken in the context of how Vunipola is used by Saracens and England. Because of his excellent handling skills – by prop standards at least – he often pops up as a stationary shovel passer at first receiver in the midfield.
By comparison, Leicester’s Ellis Genge – an incredibly powerful and aggressive carrier – has made 99 carries in 15 appearances for 305 metres gained. While his carries are more effective at just over 3 metres a carry, the volume is significantly less than Vunipola.
The sheer number of carries Vunipola gets through in fact compares favourably to the Premierships top backrowers, who tend to dominate the stats for carrying volume.
And carrying for in an England shirt has been equally impressive. Against Italy in the opening game of the Six Nations he passed the 200 metres carried milestone.
36' ITA 7 – 17 ENG#IBMTryTracker Milestone | @Mako_Vunipola has now made 200 carries in an England shirt.#ITAvENG live blog ➡ https://t.co/wrmbSbIk75 pic.twitter.com/BmHKkkq2FG
— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) February 4, 2018
His abilities have not gone unnoticed by Eddie Jones, who has named checked in press conferences regarding his remarkable workrate.
“You just look at loosehead props now, what they’re required to do. It is amazing. You’ve got someone like Mako Vunipola, he’s 125 kilogrammes, that’s big enough to be a Sumo wrestle,” Jones told reporters in January.
“He makes 20 tackles a game, carries the ball 10 times, cleans out 20 times, scrums 15 times, lifts in the line-out 18 times. What those guys do now, compared to what a prop did 10 years ago, has increased at least two-fold.”
Watch episode 1 of Rugby Explorer with Jim Hamilton
Ex-Scotland international, Jim Hamilton, travels to Singapore to explore the city and find out more about the rugby scene in the Southeast Asian country. He meets up with the national team captain and several local players.
