‘You can’t keep going to the well’: Record breaking ex-England star praises Steve Borthwick’s Maro Itoje management
‘You can’t keep going to the well’: Record breaking ex-England star praises England’s Maro Itoje management
George Kruis has applauded the care shown by England in giving team captain Maro Itoje the summer off – two seasons after Owen Farrell stepped down from the same role to “prioritise his and his family’s mental well-being”.
The England and Lions great believes his former second-row partner will reap the benefits from being excused the Southern Hemisphere leg of the Nations Championship and is “going to bounce back stronger as a result”.
Kruis told Planet Rugby: “Looking after a player mentally and physically is super important. You can’t keep going to the well. I’m a big fan of what England have done.”
An advocate for mental health awareness
Since retiring from rugby to co-found wellness brand fourfive, Kruis has also become a staunch advocate for mental health awareness.
At the weekend he helped raise £69,000 for rugby mental health charity LooseHeadZ by taking part in a 28-hour match which, subject to verification, established a new world record for the longest-ever game of sevens.
“Maro has always been on – literally, since he came out of the [Saracens] academy. He’s not a guy who does 20 minutes here, 20 minutes there.
“He runs the team, he plays 80s [minutes], has leadership roles such as lineouts and captaincy and holds the changing room well.
“When you’re in those positions it’s not just the turning up and playing. It’s the planning, it’s the mental load of running it and thinking and caring for it and having to drive the standards.
“Added to that, Maro has had off-field things he’s had to deal with emotionally [his mother’s passing]. Given there is a World Cup next year, this little break I feel is well timed. I applaud Steve [Borthwick] for it.”
Kruis, 36, is talking three days after the marathon men’s and women’s matches, staged at Sandbach RUFC by the LooseHeadZ charity, finally ended.
Starting at noon on Friday, they eventually finished at two minutes past four on Saturday afternoon, with each player estimated to have covered around 83 miles.
“It was a lot harder than I thought it would be,” admits Kruis, who won 45 caps, played in the 2019 World Cup final and wore the Lions jersey against the 2017 All Blacks.
“Chucking your body back into something where you’re on your feet for that long definitely was an eye-opener, especially after a career in which I had four ankle operations and eight epidurals. It reminded me exactly why I retired.
“If you’ve done a good preseason before, you’ll know the feeling where you get in, and you just can’t keep your eyes open; you’re absolutely cooked. You feel your body is just giving in.
“On the train back you could have paid me £1 million, and I wouldn’t have been able to keep my eyes open. My ankles were blowing up.
“But it’s all worth it,” Kruis insists. “Because I am continuously shocked by the statistic that the biggest killer of people under 35 – and men under-50 – is suicide.
“You’ve got cancer, you’ve got diseases, you’ve got road collisions, you’ve got all these other factors, some of them really hard to avoid. And suicide is the top one.
“There is so much silence around it, but sport has a brilliant ability to humanise things and bring out emotions, maybe soften the sort of area around it.
“Sometimes it’s a snapshot in time. A lot of people will be able to attest to moving through a period like that. LooseHeadZ offer a service through sport which can actually help avoid some of those ugly statistics.”
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How the “old school mentality” has changed
For the most part, times have changed since rugby changing rooms were a place where people did not share their emotions for fear of being perceived as weak.
“Fortunately, what we’ve got now is very different to that old school mentality which existed when we started,” Kruis agrees. “The resources in place and the awareness has increased massively.
“I actually feel rugby is in a good place. There are more services, there is more recognition and people are talking about it more. That can only be a good thing.”
As can the fact that Itoje’s absence across games against South Africa, Fiji and Argentina meant England having to improve their depth of experience at second row, with George Martin, Alex Coles and Charlie Ewels taking charge of the engine room.
“You always want competition,” says Kruis. “When I look at our era we had Joe Launchbury, Courtney Lawes, myself, Maro, Ewelsy and a number of others.
“You want four or five good players because it spikes competition. When people are feeling competitive, you train harder, you want your spot.
“England now have a really nice mix of young and old, with Courtney coming back and Ollie Chessum an option at lock or number six. We’re in a good spot in that position.”
LooseHeadz is rugby’s mental health movement. Founded in 2017, the charity’s mission is to place a mental health champion in every rugby club around the world, ensuring that no player, member or supporter has to struggle alone. With over 1,300 clubs in 36 countries and thousands more joining online, LooseHeadz are building a global community united to tackle poor mental health in rugby. Through education, awareness and community-building, LooseHeadz uses the power of rugby to tackle the stigma surrounding mental health and save lives. For more information, visit LooseHeadz.co.uk