'Mako is the great deceiver'
Phil Morrow calls Mako Vunipola the “Great Deceiver” and predicts the prop will be an even more powerful force when he completes his recovery from the ankle injury that has ruled him out of England’s Six Nations campaign.
Morrow is the Saracens Performance Director and joined the club after the 2011 World Cup having been Head of Fitness with Ireland and was part of the Lions strength and conditioning team on the 2017 tour of New Zealand.
Morrow heads up a world-class team of strength and conditioning coaches, sports scientists, physios and a nutritionist at Saracens that has helped transform Wallaby lock Will Skelton, who lost two stones and is now playing the best rugby of his career.
Vunipola injured his ankle in the win over France and is desperate to get back into action to help the club’s bid for a Gallagher Premiership and European Champions Cup double before setting his sights on a World Cup campaign with England in Japan. Vunipola was expected to be out for 10 weeks but the Saracens medical and conditioning staff will be working their magic in a bid to shorten that time scale.
Morrow revealed Vunipola is known as the “Great Deceiver” because the loosehead prop’s body language suggests he is constantly tired and in need of a break during matches. That, according to Morrow, is very far from the truth and he said: “Mako is the great deceiver. When you look at Mako’s body language and demeanour it appears that he doesn’t care. But he is phenomenally professional and has had to come back from some serious injuries over recent seasons and his dedication to getting fit is incredible. He is always doing extra fitness work.
“He is an incredible competitor who works unbelievably hard behind the scenes and will come back hungry to work. He injured his calf in October and returned significantly stronger than he has ever been. He made remarkable changes and while he may never ever look like an oil painting, he functions really well at what he does.
“In terms of this ankle injury, we gave him a week off because he also got injured in the Autumn and did a lot of upper body work during that rehab period. The mental side of recovery is as important as the work because when you are injured it can be challenging mentally and with a longer timeline it is important to take that into consideration. At the moment he is able to do work on the upper body and the other leg. We can use some stimulation to work on the calf with pads to make the muscles contract on the leg that is injured while also constantly icing it.”
Maro Itoje was initially expected to be out for eight weeks with the knee injury he suffered against Ireland but is battling to be fit to play some part against Italy with England facing second row problems. Morrow said: “Maro remained with England because he was going to be back playing with them before us and there is very good communication between the two parties.
“I don’t know if any player is a quick healer, but injuries recover at different rates. There are players who can genetically hold onto muscle or build muscle quicker than others. Billy Vunipola holds onto his muscle just like Maro Itoje. When you get, for example, a knee injury and you have it put it into a brace your muscle wastes away. Your quad wastes because it is not being used and so the first stage of the rehab is to get the muscle back because you can do that then you can accelerate the process.
“That can change the rehab in terms of recovery time scale and that is why an 8-10 week injury could see a player back closer to 8 weeks. A player who, for whatever reason, is slower at getting the muscle back would push it back to 10 weeks. Will Skelton broke his arm and was playing in 11 weeks while Calum Clark didn’t come back for 16 or 17 weeks with his break. Sometimes it is the type of break and recovery is led by the consultant.”
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The transformation of Skelton has been remarkable and Morrow is full of praise for the 6ft 8ins Wallaby who many in Australia believe should be recalled to bolster the team’s World Cup campaign in Japan. Morrow predicts Skelton can make even more improvements and added: “In the conversations we had with him when he returned to the club, he won’t mind us saying this, we said we were a little disappointed with the shape he was in. There are very few international second rows who are playing with one hand tied behind their back and Will was doing that because he was 10kgs overweight.
“Once you get a bit of success on the scales it gives you a boost along with teammates telling you that you are looking great. Not only did Will hit the target that was set, he surpassed it and we saw a significant improvement in his GPS data; explosive effort, high speed running and max speed running and all that got significantly better and it all supports the narrative.”
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Comments on RugbyPass
Brett, from my distant perspective, I hope you get to keep the Rebels. Any ideas of teams from Japan or Argentina are just crazy. Won’t happen. If you look at logistics, it is much easier to get to LA from Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne or Sydney than to Buenos Aires. All with direct non-stop daily flights. You may even get some “gringos” to watch the games, with some younger players compared to Giteau and Nonu who still “play” in the area. I think it is virtually impossible to get a competitive Argie team for SR. All Pumas are in Europe, almost all second tier players are also in Europe. Fringe players are in South American pro rugby tournament (and many still in the MLR!) but these players who might be most interested in joining a new Jaguares do not have the skills to compete. As I have been saying since the Jaguares joined, they should have had TWO teams to make logistics for visiting teams better and Argie player development improved as well. Jaguares/Pumas was not ideal. But this is where Pichot and his cronies did not think long enough. Further the country with he new president “No hay Plata” Milei is in a very difficult situation. Galperin, the richest man in Argentina owns the Miami franchise of MLR. I don’t think you can get him to invest in Argentina. Actually, he played rugby himself. He was a fly half. He is worth around $6 billion!
1 Go to commentsWell done Baby Boks we will take the Draw. No 9 senseless long passes in those conditions. let’s move on and hope for some good weather
4 Go to commentsHow did it end a draw. South Africa didn’t score any points as far as I can see
4 Go to commentsNo doubt this will be a fantastic occasion and I plan to be there, but I think the bean counters have won out over the rugby brains. In my opinion, it is foolhardy to give the Black Ferns the experience of playing in front of 60,000+ at Twickenham a year before they might be playing there in a World Cup Final. Better to play France at Twickenham and Black Ferns at Kingsholm. The difference in takings would be miniscule.
1 Go to commentsDom kant
193 Go to commentsBen is a little incel desperately trying to stir the pot and stay relevant. We used to get mad at his articles. Now we just feel sorry for him
193 Go to commentsPerhaps we may need to put an asterisk on NZ’s ‘87 WC win since the Boks weren’t there. You know, just as a reminder. Poor Ben Smith. Go cry somewhere else.
193 Go to commentsNz should have won. I didn't watch the game, but the ref was at fault and the bounce of the ball and the Bokke used the Bomb squad and the Bokke slow the game down and the Bokke scrum. They should remove the scrum. The Bokke are to strong. Not fair. Nz should have won
3 Go to commentsThanks for a much more balanced piece Ned and not that BS that Bin Smuth just posted a short while ago. read this article and then Bin Smuth’s and tell me there isn’t a huge difference🙄
3 Go to commentsWere the Baby Boks part of this game or did the Baby Blacks play themselves?🤔 That man Bin Smuth once again does a little write-up on the game and it is like 95% about the Baby Blacks🤣 Glad he ends off with the Baby Blacks were actually in cruise control for most of the game and weren’t actually playing for the win WTF🤣🤣 Maybe he was expecting the Baby Blacks to run rampant….
4 Go to commentsOne does not expect anything more from Ben Smith who epitomises the worst of New Zealand media arrogance and an inability to balance what he has to say about any team that beats the All Blacks. His reference to context is pathetically thin. He does not comment that Frizell deserved a red card given his blatant manipulation of his body to ensure that he could drop his body weight onto Mbonambi’s lower leg. No mention of the ball lost forward before the All Black’s try (lost in-field of the 5 metre line and gathered beyond). The All Black commitment and effort was superb and there was little in it. Given the Springbok passage to the final and the loss of their hooker in the first three minutes, their resolve and capacity to win their fourth final out of eight attempts (not three out of ten) deserves the praise that has been forthcoming from media around the world, worth reading and listening to. Ben should join his “pundit” friends on TV - he would fit in well. This sort of article reduces any credibility Rugby Pass has ever had. Why persist with this sort of nonsense? The man does his country and a rugby blog a disservice.
193 Go to commentsEtzebeth went on to say: “I would never dream of saying that systems stay in place following a change in captain. To say that would be deeply, deeply, disrespectful of Siya. A while back an Irish person told me they would be fine without Sexton, so I’m just responding to that.”
3 Go to commentsClose games are what we want to see…. What a match it was…. I am sure that everyone was drained by the end of it. The reality of it all there has to be a winner and a loser. The fact that we still talking about it is almost 6 months to the day Rugby is the winner.. Asante sana… Here is to 2027 and what it will bring out.
193 Go to commentsIt’s going to be a good game. COYQ
1 Go to comments“Shock”, the guy was casually saying he was just slightly surprised. Nowadays if you say anything it gets taken completely out of context. Calm down everyone.
156 Go to commentsAll I can say after reading this bitter, sour, sad piece is… Thank you very much! This will be read in the change room just before kick off on 31 August…
193 Go to commentsLook, we know contradicting opinions and wacky comments bring readers and clicks, so well done to RP for allowing always-wrong-Ben to say something here. However RP needs to put a disclaimer next to his comments for their own credibility. NZ was and is incapable of acknowledging their opp beating them. They refused so with Ire and with Arg in 2022 and also the Boks in 2023 x 2. Nothing Ben says here holds water, NZ attacked backwards, except when Kolisi and Kolbe was off And cyncialy took out Bongi, we played without lineouts for 75mins. Kolisi and Kurt-Lee almost scored twice. Thats 3 vs 2 for Boks, but the Boks opportunities was legal. Boks should have been 16-3 up by half time. Tacticaly the Boks attacked better defended better scrummed better (without a hooker) kicked better and crossed the whitewash more times. Boks beat Fr Eng Nz to win in 23, comeon give some credit at least. Even Federer Verstappen NY Mets, Mamoa, was able to see a great human sport achievement by the Boks and their DNA Boks #RWC27 !🏉
193 Go to commentsForget the 85kg bit, that can become something else. However I do like the one off test on ANZAC day idea. SR plays Fri/ Sat, test players travel Sunday and the squads have the full week together before playing Saturday. Rest of SR has a week off. Either involve women's teams in same location or in the other country and rotate annually. Herbert is right in that change is needed.
3 Go to commentsI’ve read loads of nonsense before but this article takes the cake. Or perhaps someone changed the date for April Fool's Day.
3 Go to commentsReally Rugbypass? Ben Smith I think you forgot what the Springboks did to the All Blacks at Twickenham 8 weeks earlier? Springboks 35 All Blacks 7. There is alot of ifs and buts in your article. The All Blacks threw the sink at the Springboks and unfortunately they were not good enough regardless if they played with 14 men or not. It was the Springboks who forced the All Blacks to make mistakes! Sorry but not Sorry the Springboks is the best ever Rugby World Cup Nation in the world. 4 Cups baby!
193 Go to comments