Academy Prep For Pre-Season

Members of the Greencore Munster Rugby Academy and sub-academy this week began preparations for the upcoming season. Lead Academy S&C Coach Joe McGinley takes us through a diverse week for players that coupled conditioning and rugby with practical cookery and first-aid modules.

Getting back in the groove, our @GreencoreGroup Academy lads hitting the gym this morning #PreSeason pic.twitter.com/aCaxxSbtyv

— Munster Rugby (@Munsterrugby) June 25, 2015

McGinley explains how the week began with an overnight stay in Limerick as both returning and new members became acquainted with the full group of over 40 emerging talents from within the province.

“We call this week, week zero, it’s not week one officially. We like to bring the guys in a week early for a number of different reasons. We like them to get to know each other as a new group, and secondly, for us as coaches, we like to get a better idea of the player himself before we commence the madness of week one.

“The week starts off with morning markers, musculoskeletal screenings and baselines and that will help guide each player’s individual programme and hopefully predict any speedbumps that we might encounter along the way, for example, if a guy is very tight through one hamstring or hip, we can make the appropriate change to his training regime.

“The gym work this week is just general preparation for what lies ahead so they can hit the ground running next week.”

Sports nutrition is a key component of the modern game with the Academy always striving to ensure that young players balance their efforts in the gym and on the field with an appropriate diet. Therefore, last Monday and Tuesday, players donned their aprons and headed to the Hook & Ladder Café and Cookery School in Limerick for cookery demonstrations in consultation with Munster Performance Nutritionist, Dr. Catherine Norton.

“Nutrition and development off the pitch is a massive pillar of what we do and in order to achieve this the lads need to be able to cook and fuel correctly. The lads thoroughly enjoyed it, we have two done and there’s two more courses to come”, said McGinley.

In continuing to broaden player development off the pitch, players attended a first-aid course on Thursday, an idea that received a hugely positive response from the whole squad when the idea was first proposed.

“When chatting with Derval O’Rourke – IRUPA Player Development Manager – we both found it important to have the ability to save a life if we need it. The guys were hugely eager to do it, everybody knows someone that has been affected by cardiac arrest or stroke and it has been prevalent in sport. Areas covered included CPR and defibrillator and not only is it a massively important life skill to have, but it was also a good bonding session for the guys.”

A number of players are still to return to the Academy fold. Emerging Ireland talent Rory Scannell and Ireland U20 Junior World Cup representatives Stephen Fitzgerald, Tomás Quinlan, Liam O’Connor and Conor Oliver will all be integrated into their respective pre-season programmes in the coming weeks.

Pre-season ‘proper’ for the next generation of Munster stars commences bright and early on Monday morning.

The Academy players take part in their first-aid module.