‘These guys do things a normal human don’t’ – Unprecedented access to England training as players pushed to the limit
England scrum coach Tom Harrison shouting “Stay in the abyss!” at the two England packs and Steve Borthwick with prop Asher Opoku-Fordjour during training at San Luis.
England have lifted the lid on training methods they hope will take them to series victory over Argentina and on to the next Rugby World Cup as genuine contenders.
Head coach Steve Borthwick took the unprecedented decision to open the doors to three travelling journalists and grant access to the entirety of England’s main closed session of the week.
For two hours at Club San Luis, on the outskirts of La Plata, I witnessed the exhausting session England’s players are put through to make them game-ready for the weekend.
Working hard
It included live scrummaging against TEN forwards, and a series of four-minute blocks of drills aimed at taking Red Rose stars deeper into fatigue than even a Test match manages.
“Is it hard? Yeah. Intense? Yeah. Brutal? Yeah,” says Tom Harrison, England’s scrum guru.. “These guys do things a normal human doesn’t. They do it on a Tuesday to be able to go and win on a Saturday and it’s tough.
“It’s something special that these guys put their bodies through. Is it to the point of recklessness and stupidity? No. There’s a thought-process behind it. But they will 100 per cent work hard.”
The tradition in rugby, and other sports, has long been to reveal only enough to the media to satisfy the team’s sponsors. Photos of players warming up, jogging aimlessly or kicking a ball gently to one another are de rigueur.
This was something else altogether. On a foggy morning an hour or so’s drive from Buenos Aires, we saw the 34-man squad put through the full repertoire of training drills, all conducted with military precision.
“The aim is to go above Test match intensity,” co-captain Jamie George later explained. “You’ll often hear Steve talk about wanting to replicate the hardest Test matches we’ve played by taking it above that and seeing where we can go with that.”
And so it was that for 20 minutes short of two hours George and team mates honed their skills, marrying technique with intensity, cohesion with graft.
England had already finished a gym session inside when we arrived and were just completing unit meetings on the pitch. From there a whistle blew and they were off, embarking on a series of drills, performed with military precision.
Borthwick started by sharpening the reflexes of his second rows by throwing tennis balls to catch from point-blank range. From there the players divided into groups for a variety of small-pitch drills.
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Four minute blocks
There were high ball restart drills, then onto footwork; catch and step inside slalom poles. Next came speed work, then contact skills, then clear-outs. Each in four-minute blocks, sharply executed.
“If the ball goes dead or you drop it another ball comes in straight away,” George said. “The ball is never in play for four minutes in a Test match but we want to work in four-minute blocks so it’s above that intensity. Steve constantly talks about driving habits under fatigue.”
Finally a pause, recovery drinks and into a huddle. Another whistle signalled time for 15 v 15. England at full bore, impressive to watch. For the forwards there was no end in sight.
Once the coaches had called a stop to this session the drone went up, long studs were called for and the pack started live scrummaging.
“Stay in the abyss,” yelled Harrison as his two sets of forwards powered into each other and held the position.
“Scrums have previously been at the start of the session so that the players have lactic build-up in their legs: ‘Now, go and do the session and run’,” he explained. “But now it’s at the end of the session. ‘You’ve run, you’re fatigued, can you now execute with that?’
“Machines are really good for timing but they don’t push back so you can’t change the angle on it too much. And we have limited time. On a Tuesday we will do seven live scrums, maximum. If we’re doing that on a machine I’m only working eight players.”
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The sheer power of Fin Baxter and Asher Opoku-Forjour, Afo Fasogbon and Joe Heyes, Bevan Rodd and Trevor Davison, is something to behold. Lineouts are interspersed between the scrums, George, Theo Dan and Curtis Langdon providing the ammunition.
“What I like about it is you’re under fatigue,” says George. “It’s the most like a Test match set-piece you’re ever going to get. We want to be a uniform, very well drilled pack. It’s quite easy to let that slip if you’re tired or thinking about other things. This narrows the focus.”
The worst is saved for last. As the big men pack down one final time, Harrison instructs Baxter and Heyes to join the opposition pack as auxiliary flankers. Ten versus eight. No buckling, the scrum holds.
It is impressive indeed and while it guarantees nothing on the weekend, England fans can rest secure in the knowledge their heroes are leaving no stone unturned in their quest for improvement.
