‘To be the best in the world you have to have an obsession’
As Saracens prepare for the Champions Cup final, George Kruis is working to get every detail right
This afternoon, as he does every Sunday, George Kruis will sit down in front of his laptop and begin watching clip after clip of line-out footage.
The laborious task is likely to take several hours but the Saracens and England lock says even his girlfriend Sarah is “getting to grips” to his devotion to line-out analysis on the day of rest. Kruis regards his Sunday afternoon sessions as one of the most important periods of his training week, a time when the line-out caller for both club and country fine tunes the detail that can make or break his side’s hopes of success.
This afternoon his subject matter is the line-out of Clermont Auvergne, Saracens’ opponents in the Champions Cup final at Murrayfield next Saturday, and the stakes could not be higher. The Top 14 side will arrive in Edinburgh with a formidable set of forwards, armed with the firepower to meet head-on Saracens’ gladiatorial pack, which has once again powered Mark McCall’s side into the final as they defend their European crown.
For Kruis – whose rise to become one of the most impressive secondrow operators in the northern hemisphere is reflected in his Lions selection despite missing most of the season with ankle and knee injuries – the preparation will be critical.
Armed with comprehensive footage of the Clermont line-out supplied by the Saracens coaching staff, he will examine the strengths and weaknesses of their opponents and draw up a strategy to give his side the set-piece edge going into Saturday’s final.
“You treat it like any other passage of the game,” Kruis said. “I think you learn what their strengths are and their weaknesses are and you match
‘I think around 60 or 70 per cent is preparation and 30 per cent is what you do on the field’
them up to depend on what we want as a team and what our plan for attack is and plan for defence is.
“You match your strengths against their weaknesses and vice-versa. You have to put it into what sort of game plan we want as well. There are a lot of variables when you are actually out there but I think around 60 or 70 per cent is preparation and the other 30 per cent is what you do on the field.”
At Saracens, Kruis is following in the dedicated footsteps of line-out technicians such as Steve Borthwick and Paul Gustard, with England now benefiting from their expertise.
“They are very different characters, but George learned a lot from Steve and is very diligent about how he does it,” said McCall. “His calling – his confidence and authority with the pack – has got better and better to the point where it is outstanding now.”
Kruis, however, has put his own spin on the line-out analysis: “If you what to be the best in the world at anything you have to have an obsession. I have been part of a group that has had Paul Gustard, who is very dedicated, Hugh Vyvyan, Hadyn Smith – players in the past who have sculpted the way for Maro [Itoje] and myself. You do what the people in front of you do and learn off them.
“To have them in front of us has been very lucky but I think we have also put our own touch on it. The game changes as well so there are things you have to pick up along the way and adapt to. If you want to be the best you have to put the time in.”
On Tuesday, Kruis will gather with his fellow line-out jumpers and forwards coach Ian Peel to discuss their strategy. Other callers such as Itoje will have an input into the throwing decisions while the ‘non-jumpers’ will assist with defence. The detail will enable the Saracens starting pack to hold a line-out session against fellow team-mates, who will throw and defend as they expect Clermont to do.
“The behind-the-scenes work is unbelievable and it will not just be me who looks at it,” Kruis said. “It will be all the calling second rows at the club, so there might be up to six of us, and the people who don’t call might look at defence and come up with what they think Clermont will come up with.
“So we face a pack in training which is clued up to what Clermont does, which is every bit as important as whatever Maro or myself might do.”
McCall is in no doubt about the vital role Kruis will play at Murrayfield, but insists the 27 year-old’s influence will extend far beyond the line-out, a skillset that makes him a strong contender to win a place in the Lions side for the three Tests against New Zealand.
“Everyone knows what a strong scrummager he is but he is also unbelievable around the park,” McCall added. He is relentless in his workrate. He can go for 80 minutes and contribute in all sorts of ways – how he carries and how he puts kick-pressure on nine and 10. His workrate is off the scale and that is going to be vitally important in New Zealand.”