Adrenalin can work wonders but, in the aftermath of Sunday’s sensational Heineken Cup game between Munster and Wasps, there were some exhausted rugby men yesterday. Many confessed to feeling mentally and physically drained and they were just the ones watching on television.
Amid all the justified euphoria about a match which has raised the European game to new heights, however, the rueful look on Lawrence Dallaglio’s face when asked to reflect on next month’s final against Toulouse spoke volumes. England’s warrior captain and his fellow weary Wasps are aware life is not that simple.
Barely had they flown in from Dublin yesterday lunchtime, for instance, than Wasps were required to refocus on the domestic front. They are due to visit a vengeful Gloucester at Kingsholm on Saturday and must then entertain Leicester the following weekend, crucial games they dare not lose if they wish to overtake Bath at the top of the Zurich Premiership.
If they do finish second, they will have no option but to navigate a further bruising play-off on May 15, with their Heineken Cup showdown against the holders Toulouse scheduled only six days before the Zurich grand final on May 29. After which Dallaglio and co are required to drag their protesting bodies back down under for Tests on successive weekends against New Zealand (twice) and Australia. If they are still standing by July – and remember post-World Cup fatigue was already a creeping factor during the Six Nations – they really will deserve a medal.
Dallaglio’s stock response – “That’s life, it’s part of the job” – goes a long way towards explaining Wasps’ consistent success. They are, without doubt, the fittest club team in Britain, if not Europe, and the assistant coach Shaun Edwards’ mantra – “To rest is to rust” – is shared by the squad. Winning also makes aches and pains more bearable. But when club games start becoming as intense as Test matches, as they are now, how much more can even the healthiest bodies take? And, looking ahead, what kind of battered England tour party will embark for Auckland in the first week of June?
The last question, of course, is not top priority for Wasps but it is certainly occupying England’s fitness adviser David Reddin. Like everyone else, he watched Sunday’s game and is conscious of the danger of leading English players suffering burn-out not only this summer but in the long term.
“These guys are not machines,” admitted Reddin yesterday, stressing the need for the clubs and Twickenham to work together to ease the burden on their shared assets. Reddin will be in touch with Wasps’ fitness guru Craig White, for example, to discuss the importance of not over-training the likes of Dallaglio and Simon Shaw at what he concedes is “the Groundhog Day stage” of the season. He is confident, though, that if any group of players can cope it is Wasps’ England men, simply by virtue of the fitness base they built up last summer.
“In my opinion Wasps have got the best physical set-up in the country. More than any other club they are very good at planning their work a long time in advance. They put a big emphasis on conditioning so, from my point of view, that creates a smaller problem for the England boys than at other places where perhaps they don’t.
“These are not new issues. This year it’s Wasps, in previous years it has been Leicester. It’s just a question of working around them. The intensity of big club games is going to become an issue but occasions like yesterday are also great for the international game because they are better preparation for Test matches.”
Reddin also foresees more individual-based fitness programmes and clubs requiring bigger squads but, for the time being, it appears few England squad members will be excused the summer tour on grounds of fatigue. “There’s no rest for the wicked,” he said. “I’m very sure when we arrive in New Zealand and Australia we’ll be facing a very hungry, fit group of opposition players. It’s up to our guys to make sure they’re up to the challenge.”
Wasps’ bruised heroes can at least be thankful they are not French. As things stand, Toulouse face midweek French championship play-offs either side of the Heineken Cup final weekend which they cannot ignore if they wish to be sure of qualification for Europe next season. “It is obscene and completely lacking in any respect for the players,” stormed the Toulouse coach Guy Nov8;s. By far the biggest threat to the fast-rising quality of European rugby remains the unsustainable, bloated fixture list.
