Finally approaching peak condition

ON RUGBY:Defeat on Saturday will focus the collective mindset for our trip to Sixways and my old Leinster coach Mike Ruddock's Worcester, writes BOB CASEY

I THINK it is worth taking the reader down the lonely route an injured rugby player must travel and the challenges it presents to both the team and the individual.

The list of high-profile casualties within the Irish system has become a genuine concern: Luke Fitzgerald’s ruptured knee ligaments; Denis Leamy (serious knee problem as well); thankfully Marcus Horan is just coming back but Jerry Flannery had an Achilles operation last month; Rory Best’s neck makes him a long-term concern, as is young Munster fullback Felix Jones who recently sustained neck damage while CJ van der Linde is having a nightmare.

It is not much better over here at London Irish with Declan Danaher and Adam Thompstone gone for the season. We just got Delon Armitage and Topsy Ojo back while Sailosi Tagicakibau is on the mend.

In the front five, former Springbok prop Faan Rautenbach is another recent recovery but this is offset by further losses in the backrow of Richard Thorpe and George Stowers.

We are running without about 15 per cent of the squad at present but the norm for an English Premiership squad is to function without 20-25 per cent at any time.

November was particularly challenging as we had to alter the way we play due to an absence of world-class strike runners.

Delon, Topsy and Sailosi are natural gainline breakers who bring the X-factor, as Toby Booth likes to say, so without them we needed to become a more pragmatic team, we had to start wearing opponents down. Take three points when in range and become a more direct, forward-orientated side.

There were some disappointing results but the key, and the London Irish motto is all over the club walls – “win the next game” – was to pick up as many points when not at full strength. We drew with Harlequins and did lose to Newcastle but until Saturday’s defeat to Northampton managed to retain second spot.

There is always a club cursed by injuries. I know Leicester, who have a massive squad just like Northampton and Saracens, were down to bare bones earlier this season. It is no coincidence all three of them have the biggest budget as well. We run a tighter ship but are blessed with a really productive academy. Although, we did have to sign winger John Rudd on loan as five back-three men were gone.

The professionalism of any player gets seriously examined when he is informed an injury will take three months of boring rehab to heal. The challenge is primarily a mental one. You don’t really feel part of the team anymore.

Strange thoughts creep into the mind. It is almost like you are not earning your money as a completely different schedule to your team-mates must be designed. You are in before them and leave after them.

When everyone is going out for a pint you nearly don’t want to go. It’s special to socialise with team-mates after a big win but if you are injured it just doesn’t feel the same.

This may sound selfish but you genuinely hope someone else has a similar injury so you can buddy-up during the arduous recovery process.

Regardless of one’s status in the game, world class or academy kid, – an injured player can so easily be forgotten about. When you are injured you become invisible.

At London Irish we try to ensure this doesn’t occur.

I’m a big believer that when you are injured a positive mentality can get you back that bit sooner. We are blessed to have a specific physiotherapist for injured players named Declan Lynch. Declan is a Limerick native who has worked with Munster and the Irish Under-20s in the past.

He rehabs our wounded. He is also in charge of guys with long-term or recurring problems with the view that prevention is better than cure. He is position specific and examines what part of the body is breaking down so as to rectify it before it becomes a problem.

For example, there is a regular frontrow clinic where he’ll work with their necks and shoulders. The secondrow club focus on knee exercises. Even just for 15, 20 minutes a week.

It is essential for a club to be proactive about their injured players as even one man out for four or five months feeling depressed around the physio room or meeting room can drag down the collective mood.

It can become an epidemic. If someone’s injured around here we try to make them come to all the social gatherings and team meetings so when they do come back they are up to date on the new moves and what’s generally happening.

You see Gavin Henson as a worst-case scenario. He seemed to just get sick of his body breaking down and decided what he needed was a complete break from the game.

When you come to a new club you really want to make an impression but quite often that’s when you pick up injuries. We signed Clarke Dermody, the All Black prop, after he had literally played seven uninjured seasons but he kept picking up little niggles that must have been so frustrating.

The only way you really get to know and be respected by your team-mates is by playing with them. Or at least training with them.

Some guys are biomechanically put together better than other guys and some are just prone to picking up injuries.

Take Stephen Ferris. He is such an explosive athlete and the way he plays, sacrificing his body, means frequent knocks are inevitable.

Others won’t play unless they are 100 per cent, as you can damage your reputation if playing poorly while injured. The public and press don’t know you are injured. At least your stock will rise in the dressing-room.

But once you get past a certain age, (like me!), you are always playing with knocks and aches. It’s just the wear and tear nature of the game. It becomes about how you manage that during the week so as to peak come match day. Thus, the value of Declan’s sessions increase as I enter sporting old age.

My own experience of injuries are significant enough. When I was 19 my back fusion ruled me out for 18 months. It took me quite a while to get back to where I was. You got to be careful as a big guy not to load on the pounds. Last year I played with a damaged arm, eventually requiring surgery in the summer, which made it hard to be at my best.

Anyway, I have to mention our two most recent results. First, we burst the bubble that was Saracens’ unbeaten run. There were 19,500 people at the Madejski and it was a brilliant atmosphere. The match produced everything that is good about rugby, which makes me feel the Premiership has turned a corner. There have been some great games of late. It was a massive physical effort but we kept trying to play rugby, even at 10 points down, and it paid off in the second half when all our pounding away on their line finally swung the momentum in our favour.

I really enjoyed battling for the full 80 minutes, especially considering I’ve had no pre-season but I am now finally approaching peak condition, which considering the theme of this article, touch wood, makes me appreciate where I am currently at in my career.

The result was a genuine victory for adventurous rugby as Sarries are top of the pile having adopted a set-piece, defensive-orientated approach. They take an average of five drop-goal attempts per game whereas we rarely even have a look.

It just shows the big games can still be won playing attacking rugby.

Shame then it didn’t work for us up in Franklin’s Gardens on Saturday as Northampton skipped over us into second with, ironically enough, our old team-mate Shane Geraghty kicking the winning conversion at the death off Chris Ashton’s gut-wrenching last-gasp try.

Credit to Munster’s upcoming opponents for their resilience and refusal to bend at home. At least it will focus the collective mindset for our trip to Sixways and my old Leinster coach Mike Ruddock’s Worcester on Saturday.

Only after that will our attentions switch back to European affairs.

Finally, a brief Christmas in Kildare was enjoyable before myself and Leo Cullen teamed up again as groomsmen for Skerries’ finest son Stevie Tanner. Self-christened the best kept secret in Irish rugby, and our old schoolboy lineout forklift, Tanner had us down to Roscommon where another good mate, Johnny Quilter, Leo’s brother-in-law, was best man.

Unfortunately the roads were so bad I ended up sliding into a ditch on the way home. Thankfully, neither Shauna nor I were hurt. We were stranded though, and a little shook up after our experience with black ice, but the folks at Kilronan Castle were superb to put us up for another night.

Every local we met, afterwards, told us we were mad travelling on that road but no one thought to let me know all this when we were merrily setting off earlier that afternoon!