The Lions have a long way to go before reaching the fitness levels they need to be world class contenders, the team’s strength and conditioning coach, Wayne Taylor, said on Thursday.
This, despite the drastic improvements they are expected to show when the Super Rugby completion gets underway.
“We are now one year into what I consider a three-year plan with most of these boys,” said Taylor.
“To put this into perspective, Elton Jantjies has worn the Springbok jersey, but is only six months into the programme I have for him, so there is still a lot of hard work ahead of us.”
Taylor, who is from New Zealand, arrived at the Lions a month before the start of their catastrophic Super 14 campaign last year.
World Cup-winning coach Jake White, who was employed by the union as a consultant during 2009, said at the time that the team’s conditioning was nowhere near the standard required for success at Super Rugby level.
“Probably the biggest shift we have made is in the individual professionalism of the players,” said Taylor.
“They are now more accountable with their nutrition and their recovery strategies, as well as what they do when we do not see them.”
The Lions started showing improvements only towards the end of the Currie Cup, which can be attributed largely to head-coach John Mitchell’s role in creating self-belief in the camp.
“Mitch is very good at selling his vision and he has the ability for people to buy into that vision and that makes it easier for me because we share the same values and standards from the coaching staff to the team,” said Taylor.
He attributed their success to a great working relationship based on mutual respect.
“The physical package that we’ve worked towards is always dictated by how the coach wants to play the game.
“I have a good understanding with John on how he wants to play the game and I have to produce athletes that are going to be able to do that.”
Looking ahead at the season, Taylor was certain their efforts would translate into results on the field.
“I’m happy with the off-season that we’ve had,” he said.
“We have had to do a lot of work to do and our training may have been longer than some of the other franchises, but we needed to do more work right now.”
Working with so many so-called “no-name brands” also presented the fitness expert with some challenges.
“I think the guys here were trying to be as professional as they could (when he was first employed), they just didn’t really have an understanding of what it took individually.”
Many things have changed since Taylor’s African experience started and like all drill sergeants, who do not expect to be loved by the men they put though agonising pain, the goal is simple.
“The objective for me is that hopefully I can push them up to the Springboks where they will again have the opportunity to train at a higher level.”
Asked whether players had grown to hate him at training, Taylor said:
“Of course they do.
“If you have to shift the mindset and they do not know what you mean by hard work, you basically have to take them right out of their comfort zone and they will hate you and it is a dictatorship.
“You are, after all, taking them somewhere where they have not been before,” he said.
Taylor saw the pain he put players through in training as a great mental weapon for future matches.
“Once they’ve experienced that and they understand that, they are prepared to go there again so that when the going gets tough, they can refer back to that experience and say ‘this is not tough’.
“Once you are at the levels you need to be it is very easy to get back to them, but to actually get athletes to that level takes a lot of hard work.”
The Lions will play their first match of the year on Friday when they take on the Stormers in the Neo-Series competition at Newlands.
Their next match is on Tuesday, when they take on the Sharks, followed by another encounter with the competition hosts. – Sapa