ENGLAND’S
TRAINING CAMP MEALS BREAKFAST – buffet-style choice of cereals with low wheat content (such as muesli), cooked meats, vegetarian omelettes, eggs, beans, porridge and fresh juices
LUNCH – choice of two meats, two vegetable dishes, wide selection of salads, fruit-based desserts and fresh juices
AFTERNOON SNACK – e.g. chicken drumsticks
DINNER – same as lunch
The players also have pre- and post-training supplements in the morning and afternoon and the option of a shake before bed.
book called Palm-Sized Plan, which contains more than 80 recipes that prove his point. He also took his message directly to the public at this year’s BodyPower Expo at the NEC in Birmingham where he gave demon- strations of recipes in the healthy eating kitchen area. If you want to try a few of Matt’s dishes
search for a video of him on YouTube explaining how to make healthy breakfasts such as spinach omelette and protein pancakes. He also describes how the classic English breakfast of bacon and eggs does not have to be bad for you if you
140 MUSCLE&FITNESS
grill the best quality organic bacon and use free-range eggs and spelt bread. But Matt’s attempts to educate lay people will take a back seat for the next few weeks while England aim to progress in the tournament. This is the seventh time the Rugby Union World Cup has been staged and the game has changed a lot since the inaugural event in 1987. Back then rugby was an amateur sport in England and stories abound of players getting drunk the night before matches and drinking after-shave during the celebrations afterwards. The amateur era ended in the
mid-1990s so all but a few remaining dinosaurs in the game have known nothing but professionalism. Conse- quently their mindsets are more open to new ideas about training and nutrition. “Most players are really good about what they eat now,” says Matt. “There is a little bit of the old culture left but they are aware of what is a bad choice.” The players certainly can’t complain that they don’t have enough support and information when it comes to making
decisions about fitness and nutrition. England have all manner of specialists in these areas who have been working with the players since their summer training camp and now with the team in New Zealand.
The summer camp included 45
players before Johnson whittled the squad down to 30 so there were even more mouths to feed. Matt held weekly one-on-one nutrition consultations with each player and tested their bodyfat levels on a weekly basis. The results were posted on a wall and monitored. “I want the squad to average 12 per cent bodyfat or less,” says Matt. “Forwards tend to be above 12 per cent; the backs tend to be below 10 per cent.” Obviously it’s great if players begin camp in this range but it’s not a disaster if they don’t. “You can make a lot of changes to body composition in a week in that kind of controlled environment,” says Matt, who was aided in his duties in camp by Paul Stridgeon, a former Commonwealth Games wrestler. “The players can train up to three times a day; they have pre- and
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