Sale sound out their football neighbours in left-field attempt to gain Premiership restart cutting edge
Sale Sharks have been tapping into Manchester City’s experience of dealing with rapid turnarounds between matches as they prepare for a return to Gallagher Premiership action that involves playing three rounds of midweek fixtures.
The heavy workload is needed to complete the remaining nine rounds of matches in the 2019/20 season as the clubs clear the backlog of fixtures caused by the Covid-19 lockdown. It will push players to physical and mental extremes – although there will be limits to the number of minutes individuals can play.
To prepare for this unprecedented challenge, Steve Diamond, the Sale director of rugby, has been discussing managing player workloads with the Manchester City football staff and has also taken advice from Preston North End and Stockport County. Sale and Manchester City have close ties, with the Premiership rugby club now using the former Premier League champions’ old training complex at Carrington.
John Kirkpatrick, Sale’s head of strength and conditioning and a former professional rugby league player, has been masterminding the return to play protocols for the club’s high-profile squad ahead of a league campaign that resumes with them in second place behind Exeter Chiefs.
The work that Kirkpatrick’s team has been undertaking will be tested on August 14 when Sale travel to Harlequins for the game that will signal the restart of the Premiership season. Matches against Exeter, Wasps and Bristol will then follow over the next 15 days.
Just 3️⃣ weeks to go and we're BACKKKK #SharksFamily 🙌 pic.twitter.com/uoeUBv1KPd
— Sale Sharks 🦈 (@SaleSharksRugby) July 28, 2020
While the Sale players – like every other Premiership squad – were given individual training regimes to follow during the lockdown, many of the players returned up to six kilograms lighter. There were two players who returned to Carrington for testing who were “four to five kilos” heavier. It will come as no surprise to discover that the two in question were the highly competitive twins, Tom and Ben Curry, who patently loved weight training against each other.
Fitzpatrick has overseen the return to fighting weight of the rest of the forwards and while the players have been allowed a lighter week, things will ramp up again on Monday in preparation for that opening game against Quins. He told RugbyPass: “We have chatted to quite a few football clubs about what they did with a congested fixture list and it is a case of recovering as best you can, squad rotation and managing the minutes they play.
“Steve is in touch with Manchester City quite a lot, and also Stockport and Preston North End. They are in the business of turning guys around after two or three days and while it is a different sport, there is a lot to learn about how they look after their players.
“One of the key things in this block of work has been running a full squad, going through all the drills, making sure they are up to speed with all the calls. We are going to have to rely on the full squad and some of the academy guys will get game time. We are not used to that amount of games in a week and normally it comes down to what you have done in a normal pre-season. This has been a more condensed pre-season and we have prepared the boys really well over the last six or seven weeks.
“When the boys were in lockdown training at home was their priority and when we got them back in they were in pretty good aerobic condition which allowed us to move on to position-specific conditioning with the backs and back rowers running high-velocity speeds and working on more conditioning stuff with the front rowers.
“We conditioned hard for four weeks and then for three weeks we have conditioned on pads and drills. We found that a number of guys had lost a fair bit of weight during the lockdown, up to six or seven kilos because the lads were used to four weights sessions in a high-performance gym but then had to rely on weight circuits at home.
“We use GPS to measure metres per minute within drills to replicate worse case scenarios in games. We try and get those drills as specific as possible and so when they are in those frantic periods in games they are able to cope, make decisions and execute skills under that fatigue. We are looking at backs moving at a pace which means that when they go into games it doesn’t catch them out and they can cope with it.”
For Sale’s 2019 World Cup winners Faf de Klerk and Lood de Jager – plus Tom Curry who was in the England team that lost the final to South Africa – the break from rugby action has been a real bonus with all three raring to go, according to Fitzpatrick. “Across the board, the guys came back in great shape. I do believe the three guys have benefitted from downing tools both mentally and physically. You can see with the three that they are rejuvenated.
“Tom and Ben Curry were the two who came back in having put on four or five kilos of muscle and they are naturally fit lads who had a chance to focus on gym work. Any conditioning we do with Tom and Ben there are so many arguments about who got there first.
“It is great because they are constantly pushing each other. Tom has done amazing things and Ben has been one of our best players and this is going to be a really big season for him. In training, there is nothing between them.”
While the rest of the sport struggles to tell the difference between the identical Curry twins, Fitzpatrick has no trouble working it out having been around the boys since they were 17-years-old.” To me they don’t seem similar, they have different personalities and I can even tell them apart from behind,” he added.
Breathtaking riposte https://t.co/1upJrM9GRV
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) July 29, 2020
Comments on RugbyPass
Bell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
13 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
4 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
4 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
26 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
13 Go to commentsTalking bout Ryan Crotty? Heard Crotty say in a interview once that SBW doesen't care about the team . He went on to say that whenever they lost a big game, SBW would be happy as if nothing happened, according to him someone who cares would look down.. Personally I think Crotty is in the wrong, not for feeling gutted but for expecting others 2 be like him… I have been a bad loser forever as it matters so much to me but good on you SBW for being able to see the bigger picture….
26 Go to commentsThis sounds like a WWE idea so Americans can also get excited about rugby, RUGBY NEEDS A INTERNATIONAL CALENDER .. The rugby Championship and Six Nations can be held at same time, top 3 of six nations and top 3 of Rugby championship (6 nations should include Georgia AND another qualifying country while Fiji, Japan and Samoa/Tonga qualifier should make out 6 Southern teams).. Scrap June internationals and year end tours. Have a Elite top six Cup and the Bottom 6 in a secondary comp….
13 Go to commentsThe rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
84 Go to commentsNo surprise there. How hard can it be to pick a ball off the ground and chuck it to a mate? 😂
2 Go to commentsSometimes people just like a moan mate!
4 Go to commentsexcellent idea ! rugby needs this 💪
13 Go to comments9 Brumbies! What a joke! The best performing team in Oz! Ditch Skelton for Swain or Neville. Ryan Lonergan ahead of McDermott any day! Best selection bolter is Toole … amazing player
13 Go to commentsI like this, but ultimately rugby already has enough trophies. Trying to make more games “consequential" might prove to be a fools errand, although this is a less bad idea than some others. Minor quibble with the title of the article; it isn’t very meaningful to say the boks are the unofficial world champions when it would be functionally impossible for the Raeburn trophy not to be held by the world champions. There’s a period of a few months every 4 years when there is no “unofficial” world champion, and the Raeburn trophy is held by the actual world champions.
13 Go to commentsIts a great idea but one that I dont think will have a lot of traction. It will depend on the prestige that they each hold but if you can do that it would be great. When Japan beat the Boks (my team) I was absolutely devestated but I wont deny the great game they played that day. We were outclassed and it was one of the best games of rugby I have seen. Using an idea like this you might just give the the underdog teams more of an opportunity to beat the big teams and I can absolutely see it being a brilliant display of rugby. They beat us because they planned for that game. It was a great moment for Japan. This way we can remove the 4 year wait and give teams something to aim for outside of World Cup years.
13 Go to commentsHi, Dave here. Happy to answer questions 🥰
13 Go to commentsDon’t think that headline is accurate. It’s great to see Aus doing better but I’m not sure they’ve shown much threat to the top of the table. They shouldn’t be inflating wins against the lousy Highlanders and Crusaders either.
3 Go to commentsSuch a shame Roigard and Aumua picked up long term injuries, probably the two form players in the comp. Also, pretty sure Clarke Dermody isn’t their coach. Got it half right though.
3 Go to commentsOh the Aussie media, they never learn. At least Andrew Kellaway is like “Woah, yeah it’s great, but settle down there guys” having endured years of the Aussie media, fans, and often their players getting ahead of themselves only to fall flat on their faces. Have the “We'll win the Bledisloe for sure this year!” headlines started yet? It’s simple to see what’s going on. The Aussie teams are settled, they didn't lose any of their major players overseas. The Crusaders and Chiefs lost key experienced All Blacks, and Razor in the Crusaders case, and clearly neither are anywhere near as strong as last year (The Canes and Blues would probably be 3rd & 4th if they were). The Highlanders are annually average, even more so post-Aaron Smith and a big squad clean out. The two teams at the top? The two nz sides with largely the same settled roster as last year, except Ardie Savea for the Canes. They’ve both got far better coaches now too. If the Aussies are going to win the title, this is the year the kiwi sides will be weakest, so they better take their chance.
3 Go to commentsThe World Cup has to be the gold standard, line in the sand. 113 teams compete for what is the opportunity to make the pool stages, and then the knockout games for the trophy. The concept is sound. This must have been the rationale when the World Cup was created, surely? But I’m all for Looking forward and finding new ways for the SH to dominate the NH into the future. The autumn series needs a change up. Let’s start by having the NH teams come south every odd year for the Autumn/Spring series games?
13 Go to comments