Fitness has come a long way in rugby league, as former Leeds Rhinos and England Captain Kevin Sinfield knows all too well.
The Rugby Football League’s current Rugby Director recalls starting out as a professional at the age of 16, relying on “gut feelings” from coaches who “wanted to reward us or punish us for the results of certain games.”
Advances in sport science changed everything.
“It became so science-based,” Kevin says, “looking at how many metres you could run a day and with weight training going from big groups to individual sessions, depending on what position you played.”