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How witnessing Furlong on the Lions changed Mako Vunipola

By Online Editors
Mako Vunipola

Mako Vunipola renews his rivalry with Tadhg Furlong in Saturday’s Heineken Champions Cup final and says the Ireland prop has helped him maximise his own potential.

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Saracens and Leinster clash in Newcastle, with the duel between the front rows a key battleground as the English champions attempt to dethrone the current rulers of European club rugby.

The pair had little first-hand knowledge of each other until they were selected for the 2017 Lions tour to New Zealand and went on to start all three Tests of the drawn series.

Vunipola has since established himself as the game’s outstanding loosehead and the England star insists it was Furlong who showed him what a prop can achieve.

“Tadhg has proved to be one of the best in the world, if not the best,” said Vunipola, who is set to be restored to Saracens’ front row after recovering from an ankle injury.

“Hopefully we can nullify some of his impact, but you can only do so much. I am looking forward to a great match-up.

“He surprised me on the Lions tour in the way that he was such a big guy and his set-piece stuff was solid, but around the park I couldn’t believe how hard he worked.

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“I thought, ‘I’m all right at this’, but then you saw what he did and you are like, ‘Oh, no I’m not’.

“It gives you motivation to push yourself and that is what you get with good players.

“That is one thing I take from those tours and being around those great players – you are always going to learn, it’s just a case of whether you want to.

“He has got all the skills and sometimes you forget he’s a prop forward, but that never takes away from his bread and butter, which is his set-piece. Everything else is a bonus.

“He’s very reliable as a player and when he trains he always gives 100 per cent. That is the sign of a great player in my eyes.

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“Off the field we were close. He’s a top bloke and he’s very easy to get along with. Front-rowers tend to migrate towards each other anyway. We spent a lot of time together on the Lions tour.”

Saracens were succeeded as European champions by Leinster last season and were well beaten by the Irish province when they met in the quarter-finals.

While the defeat was a bitter pill to swallow, Vunipola has revealed that it ignited their march to the Gallagher Premiership title.

“It did hurt a lot. It gave us a kick in the arse for the rest of the season and opened our eyes a bit, in that we probably thought we were something that we weren’t,” the 28-year-old said.

“We had to be honest with ourselves, so it was probably the best thing that has happened to us. Leinster showed us there is another step up. It was great for us.

“But this weekend is a new slate, so hopefully we can go out there and put in a better performance than we did that day.”

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Jon 6 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 8 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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A
Adrian 10 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

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