AMATEUR HOUR

Rugby World visits SARACENS to see how we match up in the gym against the professionals

- Words JOE ROBINSON >> Pics CARA BOWEN

BESIDES NATURAL ability, a razor-like understanding of the game and years of unwavering dedication to the sport, one of the biggest points of difference that separates amateur and professional rugby players is strength and conditioning.

Stand next to a pro and you will quickly see just how big and fit they are. In fact, it is probably the biggest progression in rugby since professionalism 30 years ago. Gone are the players with a bit of a pot belly or chicken-wing arms. The henchest props are crushing Bronco tests in under five minutes while the slightest scrumhalves are bench-pressing 1.5 times their own bodyweight.

It is this dedication to strength and conditioning that, in my view, has created the biggest gulf between the amateur and professional game. But just how big is the gap to us mere mortals? During a long and hot preseason, myself and deputy editor Josh Graham were invited by nutrition experts Science in Sport (SiS) to the training ground of six-time English champions Saracens to see how we would fare in a standard gym session against some of the top professionals in English rugby... To guide us through the session, we were joined by Saracens strength & conditioning coach Ben Calder and first-team players Rotimi Segun and Charlie Bracken.

An agenda was set of three key functional strength exercises.

“We're going to set you three exercises that we routinely test our players at Saracens with. First is the dynamic bench press; this is the barbell in the bench-press position but with resistance bands attached to the ends,” explains Ben. “They add more resistance the further you push away from the chest and it tests how dynamically you can push.