Ruth’s role as IRFU
RUTH WOODMARTIN IS HEAD NUTRITIONIST WITH THE IRFU SINCE 2006 AND SPEAKS TO
crisis, thinking for example if all of their year’s work was down the drain and so forth.
“There has been a huge focus too on mental health during it and we were making sure if they were coping okay during all of this.
“Some of our foreign players returned home too to be with their families for a length of time. I think the players have been enjoying the time they are spending with their families because they travel so much, both with their Province and the national team so it has been quite unusual in that sense that they have a lot of time.”
Ruth said that understandably the players are really missing the training and matches but hopefully things are slowly returning to what they were. “Hopefully we will see some things come back at the end of June, that is what has been proposed.
“I think team sports need a return to competition date because they know what they are training for, if they don’t have dates they don’t have anything to aim for.
“The plan is hopefully to come back at the beginning of July in Covid-19 compliant ways, when the public health messages allow and we hope to get back to competitive play in September.”
Ruth, like most of us, has been adjusting to working from home and she said that prior to Covid-19 she was able to do quite a bit of work from home if she wanted, so she was familiar with a lot of the remote aspects including Microsoft Teams and Zooms calls.
“It has given me time too to consider how to continue developing the service. The last 10 weeks have been interesting times, it’s fine here, I have a garden so it’s been fine.”
Being Head Nutritionist with Irish Rugby is a job involving a lot of travelling understandably.
The whole nutrition side of things too has become increasingly spoken of and more valued over the last decade or so too.
“Nutrition like physiotherapy falls into the medical end of things, obviously the players can’t compete if they are injured. I think nutrition was regarded as a bit of a luxury but now nutrition is looked at as giving that extra fraction of a percent for getting everything right.”
Ruth heads up the nutrition services for all the IRFU teams and she has 4 lead Nutritionists in each of the four Provinces. There are 4 Academy Nutritionists too that work with younger players on a pathway programme which looks at players that are 15 or 16 and identifies talent, giving them support around nutrition, strength & conditioning, coaching etc. It identifies them as future gems to don an Irish jersey. Ruth said: “It’s about making them better players faster in a structured fashion. Young players, especially boys in a strength sport will tend to go hell for leather in an uncontrolled and unsupportive way.
“The Academy Nutritionists work with the young players on the pathway programme from a young age up to planning to progress to professional contracts.
“Like in all professional sports, only a small percentage of players do make it. The job is to identify the boys who have a good chance of progressing ultimately into the green shirt of Ireland.”
Ruth said women’s rugby is also flourishing and women’s Rugby 7s is a growing sport around the country and said she would like to see more schools. “A lot of athletes from different sports get into rugby through 7s, I would like to see it become more mainstream in schools as it’s an attractive sport for girls in particular and it’s now an Olympic sport too.”
With the Irish men’s team floating the organisation, Ruth’s handson job is overseeing their nutrition ahead of internationals including the Six Nations, Summer tour, Autumn series and the World Cup. “Say for example the Six Nations, there is an 8 week block where players come in to the national assembly from their Provinces to train and prepare for matches.
“My job is to look after them until they go back to their Provinces and their Nutritionists there.”
Ruth said that there are 3 main areas to Nutrition, how it contributes to players’ performance is one of those key areas. “It’s our job to keep them (players) well with minimal illness and making sure they have a strong immunity to fight infection. I tell the coaches that if we can keep them well then they’ll have them on the pitch more.”
Nutritionists support players in adapting to their training. “The players are doing so much strength work in the gym, we look at the raw material before, during and after so that the body adapts. After resistance work making sure they have the right raw material, the timing of nutrients, are they eating enough calories, making sure they are not underfuelling and that they are also not overfuelling. Body weight of course makes a difference so we monitor that, their lean mass for example and what is the optimal target for them.
“There is a challenge in particular for the younger players as they want to become Johnny Sexton tomorrow, when in fact it takes 10 to 12 years to get there.”
Recovery too is massive for players and the Nutritionists enhance and support their recovery. “Players have a short window to recover, it’s the same in all team sports, GAA is similar to this, so we look at refuelling, rest etc to make sure they have an active recovery.”
Rehabilitation is also key to players returning from injury. “Some injuries are not affected by Nutritional state but some are. Looking at optimal healing for the player is important, depending on what the injury is like.”
Ruth’s role involves so much travel as she goes to all of the matches both in the Aviva and also the away games.
“I travel to all of the matches. The planned Summer tour was to Australia but that was cancelled of course.
“Obviously the big one is the World Cup. My job in that is to prepare that everything is ready in the facilities we are staying in, to make sure all of the food planning and provisions are in place, so I work closely with the chefs and catering staff in the various facilities abroad.”
Ruth said they do embrace the food and cultures they are visiting but also keep things familiar. “I am a real advocate for embracing food and whatever culture, but a degree of familiarity too is important to keep ahead.
“Say you wouldn’t give the players on the Friday night something they’ve never had before with Saturday being match day.
“On away fixtures I tend to travel ahead a day or 2 beforehand especially if we are going back to somewhere we were before. We tend to stay in the same hotels and I go the day before to make sure everything is right. Catering staff can change and I just make sure there are no surprises when it comes to service time,” Ruth said.