Former Leicester Tigers player and esteemed coach, Dean Richards, has reflected on his amateur playing days, highlighting the differences between then and the modern professional era.
There is no doubt rugby has been transformed since turning professional in 1995, with players now benefiting from elite facilities, tailored training programmes and vastly improved support structures.
Speaking on The Good, The Bad & The Rugby podcast, Richards highlighted just how stark the contrast is, particularly when it comes to today’s training regimes.
“I didn’t train that much from a rugby perspective, but I played squash three times a week. I played five-a-side soccer. I’d go to the gym. Mike [Teague] used to do weights. I’d do weights as well.”
20 cigarettes a day
It wasn’t all fitness and health for Richards, however, admitting that he was puffing on “20 [cigarettes] a day.”
Speaking to Peter Winterbottom, Richards joked: “I can remember they introduced the bleep test. Literally, you literally walked off on that first blink test that we did in Lanzarote or wherever it was and said: ‘I’m not doing this.’
Peter Winterbottom added: “I said to Jeff Cook: ‘Well, Jeff, I can only get better’.”
It’s worth noting that during amateur rugby, players had their own full-time jobs to focus on; it wasn’t just about rugby.
“I did take it seriously, but in my own way,” Richards continued.
“I would do a morning shift as a policeman, finish at two o’clock and get over to Leicester for a three o’clock kick-off. And you’d arrive at 20 to three, literally bang straight in, get changed and then run out at two minutes to three.
“And Jerry [Guscott] was the best one at that. He could p**s around all day in the changing rooms, and all of a sudden it comes to kick-off, and bang, he’s right in the zone.
“And yet, some people these days, it’s almost like setting a table, unless they go through a process starting from the Thursday right through to three o’clock on the Saturday. You know, they get thrown out.”