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Nonetheless, credit given where credit is due. For a professional player, whose sole job is to excel on the rugby field, finding time for training is a not an issue. Yet, for an amateur, to find the time between work, family, other hobbies and everything else in between, it really is the measure of a committed player who puts in the extra hours, long after the training floodlights have been turned off. Again, it’s a sign of how fanatical and passionate some players can be, striving to be the best they can be, in order to help their team for when Saturday comes. Indeed, such is their prevalence, some clubs will even have their own gyms to offer convenient and affordable facilities to their players and club members.
In the higher leagues, where the professional shadows loom over the clubs, teams may even employ personal trainers to advise on nutrition and personalised training plans for squads. There’ll also be performance analysists and GPS player tracking systems – all conveying how far the amateur game has come in terms of organisation and planning in recent decades.
Indeed, times change and our beloved game evolves – and we cannot continuously gaze longingly into the past, however comforting and nostalgic such reminiscing can be at times. In a Welsh context, in the heydays of sideburns and sidesteps, many amateur stars of the 1970s and 80s could be found staring into a coal-face during the week; today many amateur stars stand in gym-vests and stare in to full-length mirrors. But still, let’s not get too misty eyed for the past; gyms are a sign of modernity and how the game continues to develop and transform in the 21st century. They are now a part and parcel of our game
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