There's a reason Mako Vunipola is flogged - his remarkable carrying statistics
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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Comments on RugbyPass
Beautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
4 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to comments