Making England’s strengths even stronger
ELLIS Genge flattening Michael Hooper in one of the enduring images of England’s series against Australia so far was made possible by a conditioning program designed to turn players’ strengths into “super strengths”.
Genge was galvanised for the 25-17 victory in the second Test
by provocative comments made by ‘Tongan Thor’ Taniela Tupou in the build up, but the firepower needed to deliver a symbolic carry could not be generated by rage alone.
Instead, it was the product of a training regime overseen by England’s head of strength and conditioning Jon Clarke that takes defining physical attributes and aims to elevate them to a new level.
Whether it is Henry Arundell’s ability to accelerate from jog to high speed in a heartbeat or the unrivalled stamina of Tom Curry, former Great Britain rugby league international Clarke has the task of fine tuning elite athletes.
“Ellis Genge’s acceleration and speed for a front rower is absurd. He’s 118kg and with his acceleration he can beat a lot of people,” Clarke told the PA news agency.
“If you made him do a 10-minute run, he probably wouldn’t come anywhere, but when he accelerates hard there aren’t many who can live with that. Michael Hooper felt it! Once Ellis caught the ball, the force he produced in two metres was incredible.
“There are other players who we need to go for a little bit longer and you want more endurance from them, but for Ellis that’s his strength - his repeat acceleration ability.
“People always ask ‘what is this player’s or that player’s weakness?’. Well we do work on those, but we also try to turn their strengths into super strengths and Ellis is one of those players.”