BIG CHEESES
Blocks of cheddar, shots of sherry and keepy-uppies help the Saints become… (with apologies to Double Gloucester and Red Leicester!)
In the modern sporting world dominated by GPS tracking, marginal gains and high protein diets, northampton Saints have proved there is life yet in ‘old school’ training methods.
Blocks of cheese, shots of sherry and keepy-upppie challenges have been at the heart of the club’s surprise qualification for tomorrow’s play-offs.
Last season northampton finished ninth in the Premiership, but new coach Chris Boyd wasted no time in turning round the mood at Franklin’s Gardens.
As well as tearing up the team’s structure and playing philosophy, he split his squad into four miniteams during pre- season for a morale-boosting series of trials.
Head of strength and conditioning Tom Bullough was given the role of setting competitions every Monday morning.
‘Boydey’s come in and flushed out all the negativity,’ said centre Luther Burrell.
‘Last season the changing room had become a little bit negative and there were quite a lot of “Sappuccinos” but it’s a happy camp now.’
‘ The little challenges are great. We picked teams and naturally James Haskell was the last pick!
‘We had a French food challenge where you had to eat a block of cheese, a clove of garlic, some rock-hard bread and a glass of red wine. It was grim but it puts a smile on everyone’s face.’ For forwards coach Phil Dowson, a keepy- up challenge, won by prop Paul Hill, was the most memorable task. ‘ There was the Maradona 7 keepy-ups — shoulders, knees and all that,’ said Dowson.
‘You had to send in video evidence and Paul Hill was doing keepy-ups until midnight with a head torch on!
‘There was a different challenge every day in December — like an advent calendar. Before training on Christmas Eve, there was a race to do a shot of sherry, a carrot and a mince pie. Ben Franks won that one.’
At the heart of northampton’s top-four push has been Welsh recruit Dan Biggar, who is expected to wear the no 10 jersey against Exeter at Sandy Park tomorrow.
The fly- half has been given licence to play a wide, attacking game which stems from Boyd’s Kiwi philosophies. They have ditched their risk-averse approach and Biggar has formed a cutting half- back combination with scrum-half Cobus Reinach.
‘Coming into work every day is easy,’ said Biggar. ‘Chris makes it fun. He works you really hard but he also gives back. Even when we have lost games, although we are disappointed there always seems to be a positive edge to things.
‘Sometimes I used to dread coming in on a Monday after a loss because you know the meeting is going to be long and hard, but coming in here I have found there is always that bit of light.
‘It will always end on a positive and on what we can do the following week. Mondays are a bit different… this week we were shooting at targets with an air pistol.
‘When I signed, the club was on a bit of a downward slope and the coaches deserve a huge amount of credit but we’re now on an upward curve.
‘We have the freedom to play. We want the game to be as open as possible on Saturday and we have to play risk-reward rugby.’