The All Blacks remain the world's best rugby team not just because they are better than everyone else but because they are fitter. Marc Hinton looks into what makes that engine run so well.
The more things change, the more they stay the same: that much becomes abundantly clear when you go digging for the reasons the All Blacks are not just the finest but the fittest rugby team on the planet.
Truth be told, it may be their singular advantage, along with skills honed by a lifetime throwing round a rugby ball.
New Zealand's superior fitness consistently wins big-time test matches and the methods aren't as new-age as you might think.
If they can't run you off your feet with their up-tempo game; they'll simply dig in and outlast you.
Pick your poison. Look no further than last year's World Cup final for a triumph of fitness over ferocity. And again, on September 15 in Dunedin, it was the New Zealanders' ability to keep going for the full 80 that enabled them to quell a furious Springbok challenge and extend their current winning streak to 14.
Technology and science advance at a rapid rate and the contemporary professional rugby player has GPS units to track his every movement, machines to strain sinew, monitors to measure reaction and nutritional products to fuel him.
Yet sometimes it can all be quite simple.
Take September 12, days out from battling the Springboks in the Dunedin dome. Andrew Hore and Tony Woodcock, a couple of hardy front-row customers, drove to the Maniototo to spend their day off dehorning 180 head of cattle.
Not too far away Sam Whitelock and Luke Romano had had been up since 5am traipsing around the bush tracking pigs and deer.
Both these activities were authorised by the team strength and conditioning guru Nic Gill who incorporates them into the players' weekly fitness programme. This is the All Blacks staying ahead of the chasing pack. Doing whatever it takes. And it turns out, the back-to-the-future approach works a treat. For some. “It's still basic,” says Gill of the tenets of the All Blacks fitness programme.
“It could be really complicated but I've learned it's best not to over-complicate things. You need to be strong, you need to be powerful, you need to be quick and you need to be able to run all day, and priorities depend on the position you're in. There's a lot of information we can gather but we're very selective about what we use. We don't dabble.”
What they do is embrace the unique nature of the New Zealander as a rugby player. It is, says Gill, one of the special advantages that serve this team so well.
“Rugby is New Zealand's national game and as a kid you're throwing the ball round every day.
"Our skill and running ability starts young, and we like to attack.
"That involves lots of running rugby, so you've got to be fit.
“We have a different game plan to the Springboks who are all about size, kicking, territory and forcing you into mistakes.
"We have a different physique to the South Africans, so we play a game that suits our people.”
The Kiwi-isation of the training regimen follows this theme.
“A lot of our players love farming or hunting, so in the guys' programmes I'll say to Luke and Sam you will be going hunting next Wednesday, and when I show them that they are like: awesome, and if it's not there they'll be: oh, bugger.
“Andrew and Tony drove up to Andrew's farm on their day off and dehorned 180 beasts. That's been going on forever, and you have to embrace that. That's why they've got big engines, why they're tough, strong men.”
Meanwhile, their backline brethren are tackling Twitter or pondering their next game on Playstation.
But one thing Gill - who has a PhD in exercise physiology - has come to understand is that when it comes to rugby fitness, each individual is a separate case.
He assiduously plans every player's week on a case-by-case basis.
What drives one, despairs another. Ultimately it's all about one team-focused goal - and that's being the best footy player you can be on Saturday night.
“[Captain] Richie [McCaw's] got a huge engine and can run all day so his preparation is more physical/mental and around managing load and recovery.
"Then you've got younger players who haven't got the history of conditioning, so they do a lot more running early in the week.
“You've got 15 players on the field and each of their roles is quite different physically. Israel Dagg runs about 9 kilometres in a game, and most of that is sprinting.
"That's a lot of load on his legs.
"And he might do 25-30km a week, most of it pretty fast.”
Gill is happy to quash a couple of myths around the All Blacks.
They, in fact, do a lot of fitness in test weeks; and they don't spend most of their time in gyms pumping iron.
“We work really hard test weeks on increasing fitness levels, especially at the front end,” says Gill. “Our boys do a lot of running and nothing's changed there. What we are doing is top-end stuff at a high intensity and for everyone.
“The difference between us and other teams is that running is a big part of our game. We want to be able to run teams off their feet, so to be able do that we need to be able to do it.”
All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen is convinced superior fitness is winning tests for the All Blacks - even while they're still scratching to find their best game.
After the 22-0 rout of the Wallabies he outed Gill as “a huge cog in the wheel of what makes the All Blacks go round”.
“Our whole game is a work in progress,” adds Hansen. “We are trying to uplift the tempo and intensity of our game and play at a higher speed, and because of that we are making the odd mistake.
"But we tend to clear out in the second half because the other sides can't keep up.”
Gill must work around the constraints of the suffocating rugby season. The All Blacks' pre-season has become all but negligible and this continues to be a major concern for a man charged with getting our best rugby players through a 10-month campaign.
Gill calculates that at present a top All Black will have the equivalent of one day's pre-season per game. If he plays 30 times, he'll have a 30-day pre-season to condition. Compare that with a ratio closer to a week in the NRL and you understand his frustrations.
“We're miles off it, so it's a big challenge,” he says. “We need to be smart with what we've got in front of us . . . We need to keep churning out great athletes who can handle the load and volume.”
And that's why Gill's job will never be boring. From farmers to flyers, from hairdressers to hunters, he's got to take a disparate group of individuals and tune their motors to run at maximum levels for 80 minutes of agony.
All in a day's work.
- © Fairfax NZ News
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/all-blacks/7717820/Superior-fitness-the-All-Blacks-foundation
