It’s only mid-January and already we have a nomination for the category of “Most Misleading Thread Title”.
Tim&Bingo’s joint post directs us to an article by Paul Ackford in the London Telegraph titled “England’s famous brand of ‘hard-men’ have given way to gym conditioned athletes”. Far from decrying this Ackford quite thoughtfully and convincingly argues that the shift is a consequence of the evolution of the game.
“Too many Gym-monkeys ...” screams the thread title. Where in Ackford’s article is the justification for this? The only conceivable references to gym based training are:
“... the current generation are more physical, more athletic, bigger, leaner and better conditioned than those who have gone before ...”
and a quote from Exeter Chiefs coach, Rob Baxter – “I played my club rugby before the advent of the gym culture and certain players had what I call natural man-strength,” Baxter says. “I came up against Dean Richards once. Getting hold of him was like wrestling a bear. That disparity has been eroded because of the conditioning programmes everyone is on.”
Quite clearly Baxter’s point is that the strength disparity between those players with “natural man-strength” and others in previous eras “has been eroded because of the conditioning programmes everyone is on.” He is certainly not criticising the fact that players undertake gym-based conditioning.[Disclaimer - when the Chiefs won promotion to the Aviva Premiership League in 2010, Baxter installed my company’s strength equipment in their gym]
Tim&Bingo are on surer ground when they highlight “the easy life” of current players. This issue is addressed in Ackford’s article, albeit only by quoting the well-credentialled Nigel Redman.
Having criticised the hysteria in the thread title I am nevertheless grateful that the joint member team drew attention to this article. I was particularly impressed by a couple of the Baxter quotes:
“The definition of what ‘hard’ is has changed. It’s not about throwing punches, toe to toe, and being the last man standing at the end of it all. It’s now about bouncing through the collisions and clear-outs. The guys I admire are those who carry ball into a brick wall, get smashed, get back on their feet and do it all over again. It’s no secret that’s the basis of our game at Exeter. We like to keep the ball for long periods. Our back five are all regular carriers, handling 15 to 20 times a game. That’s really tough on the body.”
“The midfield backs are the real warriors because they go flat out at each other as well as sucking up the big forwards running at them off short line-outs.”
