Marler's presence makes difference to England side - Mako Vunipola

Saracens prop Mako Vunipola welcomed the return of his England team-mate Joe Marler ahead of the upcoming Round 3 clash of the Six Nations against Scotland.

Marler was suspended for six weeks after he was found striking TJ Ioane with the shoulder during Harlequins' Aviva Premiership encounter against Sale Sharks.last month.

Vunipola was replaced in the 76th minute during the game against Wales and featured in 72 games during the opening round against Italy due to England's injury crisis at loosehead.

With Marler now set to be available for the clash against Gregor Townsend's side, Vunipola’s minutes will be reduced as he no longer has to cover for rookie Alec Hepburn.

“Alec’s done very well under the circumstances, but when you have a world class prop like Joe around it obviously makes a difference,” Vunipola said.

“It’s good to have him back, not just for the rugby side but he’s also a good character to have around as well.

“I actually feel pretty good. Eddie wasn’t wrong with what he said about me being exhausted, I was shattered at the end against Wales.

“But the recovery we’ve done since has been good and has helped me get the body right. I’m looked after very well by the staff.

“I’m very happy with the way things are going. I’m feeling confident and I prepare well, which means your team-mates have confidence in you and you can go out and do your job.”

England are currently training with Georgia, who have headed to London to help the red rose team improve their scrummaging technique and it was Vunipola and Marler, who took turns during the Tuesday's session.

The teams’ backs have already faced off on the training field and, on Wednesday, line-out sessions will be conducted, but the main purpose of the Georgians’ visit was for the packs to lock horns over a scrum.

“It was a good session. As a team we learned a lot and it’s always good to come up against something different,” Vunipola said.

“When you’re always scrummaging each other, you negate each other in some ways.

“Georgia were very motivated to prove they’re a good pack. It was a good tussle. We learned some things against them which we’ve taken on board.

“We had to learn on the go and that’s the main thing we took out of the session – it wasn’t always going to go our way or be what we expected, it was different, but it’s good to expect anything.”