Barely a week after the abrupt removal of the head coach, Andy Robinson, the blood-letting at Twickenham continues. The Rugby Football Union has announced the sacking of its head of fitness, Dave Reddin, with immediate effect, to add further fuel to the debate over player welfare.
Reddin, 37, was among Sir Clive Woodward’s chief lieutenants in the build-up to the 2003 World Cup triumph and was described by Woodward as “above any other fitness expert in world sport”. After eight years working with various England teams, however, he has been relieved of his duties only seven months after being told his job was safe following a full-scale review of the England set-up.
It is no secret that England’s fitness levels are worse than they once were but Reddin can hardly shoulder the blame for the increasing pounding the players receive at club level before they even walk through the Twickenham gym door.
The vacancy has been filled internally by another RFU fitness coach, Calvin Morris, and Reddin could not hide his dismay last night. “Although the RFU have explained the rationale for their decision to make my role redundant I am disappointed to be leaving,” he said, echoing Robinson’s call for changes to the current system under which English rugby operates. “I feel proud to have been associated with the most successful period in English rugby history and my hope in leaving is that positive changes are made to recreate that.”
It is becoming clear, though, that the RFU’s elite rugby director, Rob Andrew, is prepared to be utterly ruthless in his desire to shake up the top end of the English game. There have been an alarming number of injuries to key squad members, not least to Jonny Wilkinson during Andrew’s time as director of rugby at Newcastle, and Reddin did not always have a harmonious relationship with club fitness coaches with whom, latterly, he was supposed to be liaising more closely over player welfare.
Nor have England had a good record of keeping their selected players in one piece long enough during the week to take the field at Twickenham. The props Andrew Sheridan and Matt Stevens have both picked up problematic neck or shoulder injuries in training rather than during games. Even when England moved their Test week base from Bagshot to Bisham Abbey, amid claims their old practice pitch at Pennyhill Park was too hard and had been a factor in the lengthy injury list, they lost the full-back Iain Balshaw before the first South Africa Test with a calf strain.
Whether at Robinson’s instigation or not, the England squad also spent what most onlookers felt should have been valuable training-field time at Loughborough University in October pumping iron in the gym. Somewhere along the line the balance between cultivating skills and building yet more muscle has been lost.
Reddin could also have done without the former England captain Lawrence Dallaglio criticising England’s fitness before the season started. Even Andrew, though, acknowledges Reddin will have no problem getting another job. “Dave Reddin made a huge impact during his eight years with the RFU in developing a world-class fitness programme to support the senior side. His work ensured that England arrived at the 2003 Rugby World Cup in peak condition and he was a major reason behind the team’s success at that tournament. I’m sure that he will continue to make a major contribution to elite sport in this country.”
If nothing else, Reddin’s departure will also fuel the debate about the strain being placed on England’s best players. Last year he admitted: “The players have got to be the most important consideration and sometimes that gets lost. They are the ones being squeezed. What I’d hate to see is rugby end up in a football-type situation where the coach gets the players two days before an international with levels of expectation still sky-high. I don’t see how that can possibly work for anybody.”
Yesterday’s news also means that the break-up of the World Cup-winning management team is almost complete. Apart from the medicos and physiotherapists, the only survivor with a direct input is the video analyst Tony Biscombe who, given the current turnover rate, has every reason to start looking over his shoulder.
