The Physical Demands of Being a Division One Rugby Player
In the sport of rugby, having the necessary physical strength, size and conditioning are all just as important as having the skills required to succeed in the sport. For the Siena Men’s Rugby team, a program that perennially competes in the national tournament, its players realize these pressures and demands and must face them head on.
In rugby, there is no hiding if you do not meet the physical strength and conditioning required to compete at the highest collegiate level. In rugby, the position you play lines up directly across from the person playing that same position on the other team in matches. For example, this means the fly-half on one team will line up directly across from the fly-half on the opposing team, which creates an effect pregame of sizing up your direct positional opponent.
“There’s always going to be bigger guys, but when you put your jersey numbers on and you see who you match up against at your position, you look to see how big they are physically. Obviously the forwards are bigger than the backs but it just comes down to your same number who you match up against,” said John Dudrick, a junior on the team from Hamilton, New York.
Much of the training the team does, both in the weight room and in conditioning, is directly in preparation for being ready to compete physically with the opposing players on game days. The team has numerous workouts each week which can range from conditioning tests to weight lifting sessions as early as six in the morning.
“We have to do a physical training test called the Bronco which has certain benchmarks we need to meet. It really just kind of shows you where you are physically from a cardio and conditioning standpoint and how you need to adjust or get in better shape and how much you need to work to reach those certain marks,” said Tyler Blitz, a junior on the team.
Rugby is an extremely physical and contact oriented sport so injuries are naturally bound to occur. Overcoming those injuries, whether they occur during games or in training, can create high pressure situations for athletes trying to get back to their physical peak while also dealing with the reality of missing out on playing time.
Junior Jack Weinert has dealt with numerous injuries throughout his career at Siena, and he is currently rehabbing a torn pectoral muscle. There is a pressure that comes from not playing because other teammates have an opportunity to take his playing time while he is out. Jack also has to handle the physical demand of building his strength all the way back up once he is able to train again.
“I have gotten hurt before and that has made me lose my physical progress completely and then I need to work it back up and find motivation to get back to where I was. I’ve had to do that a few times with multiple different injuries that are solely from working out and not actually on the field,” said Weinert. “I can’t do much right now, but I am still running and doing legs to try and keep my fitness up just so when I do get fully cleared I can join back up and play.”
Some of the biggest pressure that comes physically from playing rugby can also be when guys first join a collegiate program as freshman. At Siena, the preseason starts off by having all of the freshmen run the Bronco conditioning test. Training with highly touted foreign recruited players, who’s experiences playing overseas often have them more prepared to make the transition to the collegiate level, can create an intimidating first few weeks of practices for the domestically recruited players.
“When I first joined, that was definitely a super crazy experience. It wasn’t really the older guys we had to match in fitness but it was all the freshman foreign players on the team and that was definitely a new experience. I had played rugby before in Scotland but when those guys (foreign recruited players) showed up it was just a much higher caliber of rugby. I honestly thought I was screwed after the first couple preseason days. It was very intense compared to when I played other sports in high school which could also be brutal, but the way our coach was working us and the conditioning we would do was just next level honestly and for a lot of those new foreign kids it didn’t seem like it was that intense for them honestly which was also kind of like nerve wracking. They seemed like they were having a much easier time with the conditioning at that point which was both intimidating and motivating at the same time,” said Dudrick.
Trying to match teammates and opponents in size and stamina is a big hurdle that many players have to face. This can create a scenario where certain players feel the need or pressure to rise to the physical level of their peers.
“I just felt like I had to put on a lot of size initially,” said Blitz when recalling how he felt during the preseason of his freshman year. “I was a lot smaller coming in and the older kids and foreign players came in physically bigger.”
All the preseason conditioning, early morning weight training sessions and continuous practices are to have the Siena team in the best shape possible for games so they can match their opponent physically in all aspects of the game.
“When you are practicing with your team your mindset is you are going to tackle these guys but they are still my friends,” said Dudrick. “But when it is the enemy on another team you go in there for blood and just get ready to kill.”
