Brendan Gallagher’s column: Sometimes it’s better just to put your feet up

I don’t know if Wales‘ fitness guru Paul Stridgeon and Bristol coach Sean Holley are Jos Stone fans and I certainly never had them down as devotees of poet Robert Browning and author Kingsley Amis, but that eclectic quintet have something rather profound in common. All believe that less is more.
Stone sings beguilingly about the notion, Browning penned a poem on the concept and, as a wordsmith, Amis reverted to the ‘less is more’ mantra when dealing with complicated passages of dialogue. Rather than get too verbose he would start again and prune everything down to the bare minimum.
The splendid Stridgeon recently took the unprecedented step of cancelling a long-planned Wales cryotherapy-based fitness camp in Spala next month because he thinks the Welsh boys are flying and need reining in.
Brave man because Warren Gatland has always set much store by those hard yards in Poland, a favourite venue of his when coaching Ireland, Wasps and now Wales. But a great call nonetheless and fair play to Gatland for listening.
Meanwhile, Holley has decided that, in preparation for another never-ending season scheduled to end sometime in early June at the conclusion of the Championship play-offs, he wants just the one quickfire warm-up game against Cardiff at Ashton Gate on August 21. His club treasurer is probably having kittens but all power to Holley.
“The thinking is we have enough games throughout the season and it’s all about peaking at the end,” explains Holley. “I’m not a big believer in pre-season games. There is nothing on them and you run the risk of getting unnecessary injuries. If you throw the B&I Cup and the A-League into the mix, there are plenty of opportunities for every player to get games.
“We have to be confident we’ll make the play-offs, and, therefore, our season has to be about peaking in those play-offs.”
Bravo. I have often been slightly baffled by rugby‘s obsessive attitude to warm-up matches and the tendency to over-train although, of course, there is always a time and place for a genuine ‘hard yards’ boot camp.
I suspect deep down there is a subconscious and unspoken need – perhaps desire is a kinder word – for well-paid gurus and experts to be perceived as busy and productive. If they or the team come up short they understandably don’t want to stand accused of being work-shy and failing to put in the hours.
Movement, however, should never be confused with action. Many times absolutely the correct professional thing to do is put your feet up, throttle right back and take the week off.
Take the endless barrage of World Cup warm-ups we are about to endure. What exactly is that all about other than to get the turnstiles clicking for Unions at the start of a season devoid of the normal November internationals cash cow?
England have played 12 Tests since last June. Do they actually need another three full-scale Test matches – which is how they are being marketed – before we even get to the World Cup itself? Are England still seriously in the process of selecting their final squad of 31 or developing a game-plan?
In 2003 among the most impressive England performers in the warm-up games were Alex King, Simon Shaw and Graham Rowntree but none were likely to make the final squad for Australia although Shaw was eventually an injury replacement. The starting team was already inked in, the bench had been mapped out and the pecking order known to one and all. And so it should have been after four gruelling years of Six Nations campaigns and taking on the SANZAR giants.
In 2011 the only warm-up match that really counted for England was a fiery inter-squad affair behind closed doors at Harlequins early in the summer although one or two members of Her Majesty’s Press did get to view the game if I recall by enrolling at the neighbouring health club and investing in binoculars.
Only once can I recall a World Cup warm-up Test having a direct influence on what was to follow, other than causing disastrous last-minute injuries as was the case with Geordan Murphy and Ireland in 2003.
At Twickenham in 2011, Stephen Jones dropped out at the last minute against England and Rhys Priestland stepped up to the plate with such panache that he became Wales’ fly-half of choice for the World Cup the following month.
One, big hit-out on the eve of the tournament, yes, I get that totally and there is perhaps an argument for one other lesser England XV game of non-Test status to offer a run out for those returning from injury niggles. But no more.
When New Zealand embark on their all-conquering November tours of Europe it is often two months or more since they have played in the Rugby Championship or old Tri-Nations. They might fit in an ‘earner’ in Chicago or Tokyo en route but that’s about it.
And while we are on the subject of ‘less being more’ has anybody really analysed the rationale behind these elaborate 35-40 minute warm-ups many sides indulge in, rehearsing all sorts of set moves and lineouts.
If such warm-ups are so essential why do so many sides fail so lamentably to get out of the blocks and fire a shot in anger in the first quarter? Rather like exams, it’s generally not a good sign if you are swatting so earnestly two minutes before you go into the exam room. What have they been doing all week?
A stretch and a jog is obviously a good thing and if, as the coaches tell us, they want their players to get their ‘second wind’ before they run out, hop on an exercise bike for a five-minute blast.
But that’s all you need. Less can indeed be more.