STEVE'S BLOG - The Musings Of A Grumpy Old Prop.

Reproduced with the permission of the Cornish Pirates June 16th 2009

Steve's Blog will be a feature of the new Pirates website (coming soon), but for now everyone will have chance to read & join in here

For all of you out there suffering from Pirates withdrawal symptoms the good news is that the lads are back and raring to go.

The new coaching team of Chris Stirling, Harvey Biljon and Ian Davies plus our old friend Simon Raynes, have already got the new squad together and have mapped out a detailed plan leading up to the pre-season fixtures.

Chris	Harvey	Ian	Simon

So what do they have in store? Chris Stirling tells me that the work is broadly divided into three phases.

The first, throughout June, consists mainly of conditioning work through lots of running and building up stamina combined with some weights. They then have a week off to recuperate before embarking on stage two throughout July which will be more conditioning but a lot more group and individual skills work and sorting out the unit patterns of play. Finally from late July a third phase will involve much more heavy contact work plus finalising the tactics to be used.

More than ever before their body fat indices will be measured almost daily and their diets closely monitored with lots of protein supplements etc. This is all aimed to make sure they reach September fitter and more in focus than any Pirates team we have ever witnessed before.

The other thing that Chris impressed upon me is the vital teamwork and relationship side of things. Already there has been a 'get to know each other' session which included the admin staff and volunteers which was a great first step forward. There will also be dune runs on the beach, six a side cricket contests (apparently supporters can join in these) and a day at the Fire Training Centre. No doubt we can all look forward to Dotcom's pictures of Alan Paver in a shiny firefighter's helmet with Rob Elloway sliding down a greasy pole plus Matt Evans and Rhys Jones hopping about with hose in hand and hearts aglow!

Like everything else in rugby, pre-season training is now pretty scientific and has come on a bit since the 'good old days' which grumpy old props and their ilk like to bang on about 'ad nauseam'.

I certainly remember a lot of beach running from below the railway station all the way out to Marazion and back enlivened one evening when Keith Stirling (no relation to Chris) was nearly bitten in the buttocks by a small enraged Jack Russell. Served him jolly well right I thought as he had been playing water polo all summer and was already a lot fitter than us fat boys trailing along miles behind.

In fact a lot of the guys played water polo back then including Terry Drew our Club Administrator. I only ever tried it once but, not being much of a swimmer, I only lasted about six minutes during which time I swallowed several cubic feet of the foul tasting Jubilee Swimming Pool and had to be pulled out. To complete this ignominious experience I then spent the next half an hour leaning over the railings and being violently sick onto the Battery Rocks.

Famous players were also revered for their own special training routines. The great All Black Colin Meads was reputed to run over the hills around his farm with a sheep on his back and the tale went that Redruth's Bonzo Johns used to run to Portreath with two hundredweight of coal in like manner. A huge French prop named Alfred Roques was pictured in 'Rugby World' scrumming down against a pair of rather bored looking oxen. It was all utter twaddle of course but helped pass the summer pleasantly enough.

My favourite though was when one of the early Pirate legends, Bill Monckton, tried to convince me that he prepared for the forthcoming season by sitting down on a wall and cracking roofing slates over his head. Once he had done this about twenty times he assured me he was in the pink and ready for all comers.

As a callow youth I was never going to argue with him but was pretty certain he was just winding me up. Now having seen what modern rugby players put themselves through today I am not quite so sure!