England Fitness

There has been quite some comment about the superior fitness of the Welsh over the English. I'm not that surprised, according to reports England have been training 4 days a week and having a long 3 day weekend "getting away" from it.

The might do well to look at Britain's two most successful Olympic sports in the last few years, Rowing and Cycling. Go and ask those guys how many days they take away from training outside the competition window.

The last 20 mins of both games England were blowing out of their ar**s and I don't think for one minute that Wales are fitter than NZ.

England's game is built on power and set piece which is why they are not averse to picking a big front 3 that look like a row of Toby jugs in a pie shop.

doctornickolas wrote:The last 20 mins of both games England were blowing out of their ar**s and I don't think for one minute that Wales are fitter than NZ.......

I don't think we are fitter than the ABs either, but for the first time since the game went professional, we WONT be out on our feet after 65 minutes.

There are many questions asked about Gatland's tenure, but he has insisited on professional levels of fitness from his players, something all of our previous coaches (with the possible exception of Henry) have failed to do.

Being English, must admit to being pretty concerned with England's fitness levels going in to the tournament. Sometimes I think we confuse being able to bench press stupidly high amounts with being fit and being able to last the full 80 minutes at full tilt. It's not something that I've ever noticed before, even during MJ's time in charge - maybe he gets the benefit of the clubs giving him players with decent fitness levels during the season but now England have had control for pre-season the levels look like they have maybe dropped.

Thing is, with that last display they haven't really got a lot of time to be working on their game management and moves and their fitness levels. Like I say, I'm concerned.....

After a change in time zone, it takes a long time to come back to a physical peak. Mostly because the natural metabolic cycle is reversed. Teams with big pool games early on are best served to get down to NZ as soon as possible. It staggers me that in the so-called professional era that so little attention is paid to this well known truth. The 3N sides are perhaps better prepared in that regard because so much of the season involves travel between time zones. With the infrequency of genuine first team action down under from the NH sides, I wonder whether this one has simply slipped their attention. With the number of pro specialist staff on board it makes me wonder some times.

Fitness at the MS in August is one thing. Constitution and endurance in NZ a few short weeks later is another altogether.