Landmark is no small matter for Stringer
Froome under fire from Martin
FOOD is
“With the amount of work we do as rugby players, I can eat as much as I want when it comes to healthy foods – fish, chicken, eggs, green veg and porridge every second or third day.
“I’m not too worried about gourmet meals – nothing too flash or fancy – it is all about nutrition for me. I eat a little and
you learn skills to help you cope with situations. I try to operate as I’ve always done – be in most places that the ball is and get it away before defences are set.
“My body feels really good and I’m still enjoying what I’m doing. Forty is just a number.”
Stringer’s career stretches back into the last century when he made his debut for Munster with whom he won the European Cup as a try-scoring man of the match in 2006.
He has since played for five
often: high protein, healthy fats, low carbs. If I eat quite a lot of carbs it can make me feel sluggish which doesn’t do me any favours.”
DRINK
“Water is the only thing that I drink. I don’t drink alcohol, I’m not a tea or coffee man and I don’t drink soft drinks. Water is the primary ingredient. It’s so important. It
Premiership sides – Saracens, Newcastle, Bath, Sale and now Worcester, passing the 450-game mark for club and country in the process. The secret? The body as a temple. “I’ve always been very strict with myself – overly strict if you speak to my wife,” said Stringer. “I can be quite obsessed with it all but when you see the benefits of eating well and looking after yourself you want to carry on with that. “It’s chore; not it a is
is incredible how dehydration can affect your body and your training.”
FITNESS
“Scrum-halves and wings probably cover the most distance in a game – eight or nine kilometres – but at different speed levels.
“My position for the most part is endurance running. I’ve worked really hard
something I love doing which makes it a hell of a lot easier. I’ve given myself every opportunity to be on the field.
“It’s a relatively short period in our lives that we get to play at this level and I would live with regrets if I didn’t do everything I could to continue playing as long as I possibly could.”
If Stringer and his metronomic passing game has not changed during his time at the coalface, the sport has, and not necessarily for the better.
“When I first started there was a lot more room in the game – the games were often a lot more free-flowing,” he said. “But with defence coaches coming in it has become a lot more of a tactical game.
“You look up and sometimes there are 14 guys on their feet across the pitch.”
Worcester, despite the distraction of being up for sale, are beginning to crack the code.
They have recorded three bonuspoint wins in their last four matches ahead of tonight’s trip to Oyonnax in the European Challenge Cup.
“I’m not involved in Europe. They’re giving a few of the younger guys a go and I don’t fall into that category any more,” said Stringer.
“But it certainly has turned round. The first few months of the season, it wasn’t a great environment to be around.
“Sometimes it’s hard to get out of a rut when you’re on a streak of losing games, on top of all the external stuff that was happening at the club, but everyone has rallied together and we’ve scored a lot of tries in the last month.
“We’re playing a lot more attractive rugby. We’re running from areas of the pitch where we would have been kicking at the start of the season.” Looming large is next Friday’s Premiership relegation shoot-out against London Irish before a festive knees-up in the west of Ireland, Stringer-style. “I’ll have a few roast potatoes on Christmas Day,” he conceded. “There are times when you need to
relax a bit.”
on my fitness and my numbers haven’t dropped at all as I’ve got older.”
SLEEP
“I can operate fully on seven hours’ sleep. The last month has been a bit more challenging fitting in those sleep hours as we’ve had our first baby boy. So it may not all be at night, but I still try to hit those numbers.”
there is wheeling and dealing going on behind the scenes.
“Do he and his team enjoy a special status? These actions are a major blow to the difficult anti-doping fight, which I’m leading with riders like Marcel Kittel. We need a consequent and transparent approach by the UCI.”
Froome was at Sky’s training camp in Majorca yesterday as lawyers continued to prepare the evidence he will need to clear his name and avoid a ban and being stripped of the Vuelta title.
Asked if he was a cheat or had previously provided any other positive tests, Froome said: “No”.
He conceded: “Sure, this is damaging. It has come as a huge shock. But at the same time I know that within me I have fundamentally followed the protocol.
“I’ve not overstepped any boundaries and I hope by the end of this process that will be clear to everyone and I’ll be exonerated of any wrongdoing.
“We know the number of puffs of my inhaler I use to treat my asthma. And at what times.
“We also have a wealth of information from within the team about what I ate every single day, how many times I stopped to pee during the race.
“The detailed information we have been able to provide the authorities is vast and I hope we will be able to find out what the real cause of the problem is.
“My asthma was playing up a lot more and that’s when the doctor advised me to increase the number of puffs, obviously staying well in the legal limit of the maximum allowed that you can take during the race.
“So we did increase it and that’s why we’re faced with this question of I did stay within the limits but obviously the test results show a different reading.
“So we’re trying to evaluate what has happened.”