Fitness... : Sat Feb 21, 2009 10:39 pm
Most players look slimmer than last year. Some look to have lost too much weight and generally they look much more like obsessive gym users than rugby players. Lots of beach muscle and reasonably ripped. Thats good for bodybuilding contests and male modelling but rugby players need to have a little more of an energy store and a little padding otherwise their energy levels will crash, which is what we have seen, and this leanness also seems to be leading to players taking knocks during games. Quite a number of times various players went down after tackles and had to be patched up before carrying on.
Instead of a guy who is a gym manager, working part time, the club should be employing a good experienced conditioner with rugby experience. If the players energy levels are low now, we will get worse as the season progresses.
I'm not convinced by James Lowes but unless the conditioning regime delivers him appropriately fit players he doesn't stand a chance.
