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Jamal Ford-Robinson: 'In the gym we’re not lifting as frequently'

By Liam Heagney reporting from Gloucester
Jamal Ford-Robinson looks on with Gloucester (Photo by Ryan Hiscott/Getty Images)

Jamal Ford-Robinson certainly has an invaluable ability to light up the day. Bank holiday Monday provided the latest evidence. Kingsholm was preparing to throw open its gates to welcome fans to an opening training session when there was a sudden commotion in the stadium car park. Camera phones were quickly whipped out and videoing.

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“We got a little fine system in place and I was late for a session the other day,” explained the chuckling prop to RugbyPass later that afternoon. “I rolled the dice and I got fancy dress, so I came as Mr Motivator. It seems to have gone down pretty well. I actually got given the outfit by our forwards coach as a secret Santa three years ago and it has been in the wardrobe the whole time just waiting to come out.”

Its appearance was perfectly timed, enabling Ford-Robinson to amusingly continue where he left off last season as the loveable rogue whose social glue personality was celebrated at the club’s end-of-season function. The Sid Smart award is given to the coaches’ clubman of the year, someone who not only sets an exceptional example on the field but off it.

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Ford-Robinson was the winner, director of rugby George Skivington and co acknowledging how the front-rower impressed playing on both sides of the scrum as well as his general attitude and application around the place. He was chuffed.

“Mr Motivator, some would say,” he quipped. “That was good, it was nice. I had quite a good season, got more game time than I had in previous years because of injuries and yeah, it was just nice to have that recognition, not just from George but from the coaching team as a whole.

“It’s the same thing like winning things: you can have memories of having a good season or good times out on the pitch, whatever it might be. But actually having something physical there to represent that is always quite nice. I was very happy to see that.

“I got an inkling I might get something from the team manager. He didn’t let it slip but said: ‘You’re going to be there, you’re going to be at the awards night?’ I was like. ‘Yeah, I’ll be there’. I had an inkling but I wasn’t sure what I was getting.”

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It was after training when Ford-Robinson strolled off the pitch to join RugbyPass on the steps of the West Stand terrace, pen still in his right hand after signing a multitude of autographs for the fans that had just watched the squad go through its pre-season paces.

It was more than a decade ago when the soon-to-be 31-year-old first learned about the lung-bursting rigours of an English Premiership pre-season. Leicester was his home back then and while his Tigers apprenticeship was an immensely rough and tumble ordeal, it ultimately served him well in a career featuring stints at Bristol and Northampton before his 2019 switch to Gloucester.

“I’m a very different person,” he cheerfully confirmed. “My time at Leicester was good because it was my first big club and I was in the academy but that time in my life led me to a point where I had to ask myself a few questions and thankfully come out of it a bit better and have the mindset that I do now.

“I’d change nothing, absolutely nothing. There are different decisions I made along the way that you could look at it and go, ‘Oh, what if, what if?’ But honestly, I wouldn’t change anything because anything that didn’t necessarily work out you learn big lessons from. Like that move to Leicester didn’t work out. I was only there for two and a half years but what I learned from going through that I wouldn’t change that for the world.”

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About pre-season itself, how much has it changed over the years? “It seems a lot more scientific. It’s not just a case of coming in and running for your life. I remember my first pre-season was at Leicester and most of the time was spent pushing a car around a field and then just knocking seven shades out of each other.

“But there is a bit more thinking going on in it now. It’s a lot more game-based, which seems to be the consensus across the league, a lot of fitness is done by playing touch games, little top-ups here and there. And there is a lot more of a gym focus obviously, especially as a front rower, about getting strong so you can use that in those moments in the scrum and the maul.

“There is no getting away: even though there is a bit more thought gone into it there are still some very dark days in pre-season and those are never that fun. There is always a bit of anxiousness going into those. But what I do look forward to is coming in and seeing everyone. When you are part of a good squad it’s nice to come in and catch up with a load of people, see the mates you are going to go to war with for 12 months. So that is probably my best thing.”

Having trailed away in a poor ninth place in the league last term, Skivington is looking to finesse the Gloucester game plan with a greater emphasis on pace and feeding more possession to the backline. This tactical ambition impacted Ford Robinson’s pre-season. “It has a bit of an effect,” he smiled.

“The last couple of years here, not saying you can get away with being a bit heavier but we played a bit more of a set-piece orientated game and so we were very reliant on our maul and scrum. Not that we are going away from that but there is an emphasis on playing with the ball a bit more, maybe going through some more phases before resorting to kicking.

“Yeah, that is an adjustment we have to make. In the gym we’re not lifting as frequently so that we have a bit more to expend on the field. We’ll have to see how it happens in games but we are expecting to be quite a bit fitter.

“We were probably a victim last year of playing a game where maybe we just don’t have the squad for right now having lost quite a bit of experience and stuff over the previous years. I’m really looking forward to what we can do this year. The way that we are going to play is a lot more suited to the squad that we have… I’d be very, very surprised if we are in the same (ninth) position we were last year.”

Doing less gym curiously improved his scores in recent weeks. “I’ve been doing alright, doing alright. I hit 170 on the bench, which was the first time I have been that high since I did my pec a few years ago. And I’ve had a big squat as well, 250 for three which I have not done before. We have taken a back step in the gym but it’s actually been going alright.”

What helped was being careful on his holidays… unlike fellow prop Fraser Balmain who confessed to RugbyPass a few pre-seasons ago that he made the mistake of holidaying all-inclusive and his weight ballooned. “He came in big,” remembered Ford-Robinson.

“I struggled a bit after lockdown because we were away. That was kind of a pre-season, I put a bit of weight on. But normally I let myself go for about two weeks after we are done and then for those following three weeks try and do a bit of fitness so not coming in in a Fraser situation where you have got two stone to lose.

“I was actually bang on this year, I hover between 118 and 120kgs. I hadn’t really gone away that much. I’d gone away for a week but other than that we were just around Gloucester doing bits and bobs, getting away in the caravan for a few days, so I actually did quite a bit of gym, a few bike sessions and didn’t come back too bad to be fair.”

Pre-season isn’t the only thing that has evolved in the game over his years playing. Scrummaging has also unrolled. “Obviously the rules have changed. I started and we still had a hit. Well, we still had the space for the hit where now we are kind on leaning on and then slipping in.

“And with the number of jobs going down, people are getting better and so you really have to be on your money very much every week, not just in scrummaging but rugby as a whole. There are no easy games anymore so yeah, it’s tough out there.”

It’s why Gloucester scrum penalty wins are celebrated. “As a prop, there are not too many opportunities where you can show what you are about. You are not really going to be out there scoring tries. A lot of your tackles are made in and around the ruck, so they are never like the big hits, you’re never going to go on a barnstorming run so your main opportunity is to be dominant in the scrum.

“When you can do that and you get rewarded that penalty it is definitely a big thing and thankfully it’s celebrated. The team recognise that because it puts us 40 metres downfield with the lineout.”

His favourite? “There’s a couple. There was one in the Euro semi (Challenge Cup against Benetton) where I had come on and we got one near the sticks that allowed us to score out wide and basically secure us the game. There was that one where I was a bit of a twat after and celebrated it against Bristol a few years ago which kind of sticks around. But for me, there’s not one that I would particularly pinpoint as ‘Wow, that was awesome’.”

What is abundantly clear talking with Ford-Robinson is how he savours the sport, feels privileged to call it his job and hopes that the old adage about props not coming into their prime until later in their career compared to some other positions rings true for him. “It is a lot of sacrifice just to get your foot in the door and then with the league changing over the last couple of years with teams going under, there is less and less jobs.

“You have got 10 teams, if you play in one position you might have three in a squad so there’s 30 jobs up for grabs. Yeah, it’s tough, but thankfully I’m about 10 years, maybe a bit more, in it. I’ve been going since 16 so on/off for like 14 years. It’s good to be still around.

“Hopefully the adage is true. Last year was a very good year for me and probably my standout in terms of minutes played. Especially starting. So yeah, maybe we can continue that trend until into my late 30s. You never know. I was the highest try-scorer here for a bit at the ripe old age of 30. I still let them know (I scored four league tries), I got overtaken towards the end but I still let them know I’m a threat from a metre out,” he beamed.

Heading into his sixth season at Kingsholm, Gloucester has become a settled home for Ford-Robinson. “My mum was born here but other than that I had no real association with Gloucester before coming here. “To be fair, I have just loved it. When I first moved, I moved into the Quays so pretty central but now a couple of miles out but still well and truly in Gloucester. Love it.

“Found a missus and we have been together for coming up to two years, living together, adopted her dogs as my own [a staffy and a rottweiler], got a caravan going on holidays. Outside rugby, things are going very well at the moment.”

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A post shared by Jamal Ford-Robinson (@jfordrob)

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J
JW 1 hour ago
How law changes are speeding up the game - but the scrum lags behind

so what's the point?

A deep question!


First, the point would be you wouldn't have a share of those penalities if you didn't choose good scrummers right.


So having incentive to scrummaging well gives more space in the field through having less mobile players.


This balance is what we always strive to come back to being the focus of any law change right.


So to bring that back to some of the points in this article, if changing the current 'offense' structure of scrums, to say not penalizing a team that's doing their utmost to hold up the scrum (allowing play to continue even if they did finally succumb to collapsing or w/e for example), how are we going to stop that from creating a situation were a coach can prioritize the open play abilities of their tight five, sacrificing pure scrummaging, because they won't be overly punished by having a weak scrum?


But to get back on topic, yes, that balance is too skewed, the prevalence has been too much/frequent.


At the highest level, with the best referees and most capable props, it can play out appealingly well. As you go down the levels, the coaching of tactics seems to remain high, but the ability of the players to adapt and hold their scrum up against that guy boring, or the skill of the ref in determining what the cause was and which of those two to penalize, quickly degrades the quality of the contest and spectacle imo (thank good european rugby left that phase behind!)


Personally I have some very drastic changes in mind for the game that easily remedy this prpblem (as they do for all circumstances), but the scope of them is too great to bring into this context (some I have brought in were applicable), and without them I can only resolve to come up with lots of 'finicky' like those here. It is easy to understand why there is reluctance in their uptake.


I also think it is very folly of WR to try and create this 'perfect' picture of simple laws that can be used to cover all aspects of the game, like 'a game to be played on your feet' etc, and not accept it needs lots of little unique laws like these. I'd be really happy to create some arbitrary advantage for the scrum victors (similar angle to yours), like if you can make your scrum go forward, that resets the offside line from being the ball to the back foot etc, so as to create a way where your scrum wins a foot be "5 meters back" from the scrum becomes 7, or not being able to advance forward past the offisde line (attack gets a free run at you somehow, or devide the field into segments and require certain numbers to remain in the other sgements (like the 30m circle/fielders behind square requirements in cricket). If you're defending and you go forward then not just is your 9 still allowed to harras the opposition but the backline can move up from the 5m line to the scrum line or something.


Make it a real mini game, take your solutions and making them all circumstantial. Having differences between quick ball or ball held in longer, being able to go forward, or being pushed backwards, even to where the scrum stops and the ref puts his arm out in your favour. Think of like a quick tap scenario, but where theres no tap. If the defending team collapses the scrum in honest attempt (even allow the attacking side to collapse it after gong forward) the ball can be picked up (by say the eight) who can run forward without being allowed to be tackled until he's past the back of the scrum for example. It's like a little mini picture of where the defence is scrambling back onside after a quick tap was taken.


The purpose/intent (of any such gimmick) is that it's going to be so much harder to stop his momentum, and subsequent tempo, that it's a really good advantage for having such a powerful scrum. No change of play to a lineout or blowing of the whistle needed.

161 Go to comments
J
JW 2 hours ago
How law changes are speeding up the game - but the scrum lags behind

Very good, now we are getting somewhere (though you still didn't answer the question but as you're a South African I think we can all assume what the answer would be if you did lol)! Now let me ask you another question, and once you've answered that to yourself, you can ask yourself a followup question, to witch I'm intrigued to know the answer.


Well maybe more than a couple of questions, just to be clear. What exactly did this penalty stop you from doing the the first time that you want to try again? What was this offence that stopped you doing it? Then ask yourself how often would this occur in the game. Now, thinking about the regularity of it and compare it to how it was/would be used throughout the rest of the game (in cases other than the example you gave/didn't give for some unknown reason).


What sort of balance did you find?


Now, we don't want to complicate things further by bringing into the discussion points Bull raised like 'entirety' or 'replaced with a ruck', so instead I'll agree that if we use this article as a trigger to expanding our opinions/thoughts, why not allow a scrum to be reset if that is what they(you) want? Stopping the clock for it greatly removes the need to stop 5 minutes of scrum feeds happening. Fixing the law interpretations (not incorrectly rewarding the dominant team) and reducing the amount of offences that result in a penalty would greatly reduce the amount of repeat scrums in the first place. And now that refs a card happy, when a penalty offence is committed it's going to be far more likely it results in the loss of a player, then the loss of scrums completely and instead having a 15 on 13 advantage for the scrum dominant team to then run their opposition ragged. So why not take the scrum again (maybe you've already asked yourself that question by now)?


It will kind be like a Power Play in Hockey. Your outlook here is kind of going to depend on your understanding of what removing repeat scrums was put in place for, but I'm happy the need for it is gone in a new world order. As I've said on every discussion on this topic, scrums are great, it is just what they result in that hasn't been. Remove the real problem and scrum all you like. The All Blacks will love zapping that energy out of teams.

161 Go to comments
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