In good shape chasing that hard edge

1:27pm Thursday 10th February 2005

STANDING on the touchline as the team ran through some moves for Saturday's game I wondered what I'd let myself in for. Time and again the players were given instructions before re-aligning to have another go. It seems head coach Tony Rea is a difficult man to please.

London Broncos are preparing for the 2005 Super League Season and for one session only I joined them at the BA Concord Club in Cranford to see what their preparation was like.

I'm an avid watcher of rugby league and, for my sins, I take to the pitch as a prop for a rugby union side most Sundays, but when I was invited to join the team in a light fitness session I was anxious to say the least.

As I stepped onto the pitch, fitness coach Shaun Tagg, who joined the team 11 months ago, was handing out clipboards to the 15 players taking part in the session.

Looking over the shoulder of centre Mark O'Halloran as Shaun explained the session and hearing the beeping of watches on the players' wrists, I quickly understood the session had something to do with heart rates.

"It's about giving them control of their training," explained Shaun as the players discussed exactly what the session involved. "They need to have feedback for them to be able to challenge themselves to reach the top end of their physical development. We have built great fitness but we now need to find that extra three to five per cent improvement."

Shaun describes his primary focus as building the engine with which the coaches can work.

His fitness sessions relate to the game as players are made to work hard over 20m, a distance they regularly cover when defending.

Throughout the off-season the players have been wearing the heart rate monitors, helping the coaches understand the way their bodies react to different intensities of exercise.

But for the first time the players were being asked to use information from the monitors to control their level of training.

Working continuously through five cardiovascular activities the players had to reach their maximum heart rate - a figure predetermined by Shaun, before recovering to a lower stated rate. And then they began again.

Luckily for me there were no heart rate monitors and no predetermined work levels. I was just having a go at the activities d that meant run, run, run, run, run.

We all began as a group on the halfway line and the photographer's words "Just try and stay with them" floated through my mind as the team sprinted past me.

Full pace up to the tryline, turn, back to the opposite tryline and finish off on half way. Then quickly into six shuttles - sprint 20m, turn and back, hit the deck up and away you go again.

I was still completing my sprints as the players spent a minute wrestling in partners on the floor. Then it was back to shuttles, running 10m, hitting the deck, back up and another 10m, hitting the deck and turning to do the same on the way back.

By now, despite not participating in the wrestling, all the players had overtaken me. But I kept going, sprinting 10, 20, 30 and 40m.

As I returned to the start, some players were reaching their maximum and resting, while others were starting over again and I joined them, with my lungs beginning to burn.

For a number of players, reaching their maximum heart rate appeared an insurmountable task and their frustration at the session increased.

It felt like we had been running for an eternity when Shaun assured me that he had pulled the session short and as we rested I asked him how he thought the session had gone.

"I think I had about half of their heart rate levels right," he said insisting that the players had really been pushing themselves.

Recovery over, Tony returned to the fold, it was time for some handling drills.

I joined the back of a queue on one of the five cones in a circle and followed the player in front of me, receiving and passing across on a diagonal then moving right.

All the time the rugby basics were spinning through my mind - hands up, call for the ball, flick from the wrists as I pass - determined not to make a mistake.

As I stepped up for my first touch of the ball I could sense everyone's eyes on me. I called out "Hannah's ball" caught and passed it, straight to hand, what a relief.

As the session drew to a close Shaun who is responsible for strength and conditioning throughout the squad led a stretch before directing the players towards the ice baths, used to speed muscle recovery.

I was invited to join them, but knowing there was no training for me the next day I declined the tempting offer of jumping into a freezing bath!

Pulling on my tracksuit I took a moment to speak to Rea, a member of the Bronco's team for the last 10 years first as a player, captain, chief executive and now coach.

Firstly I asked him what the 2005 Super League season holds for the London side who finished 10th last season?

"We are in good shape," explained Tony. "The hard edge needs to come to us but that's the same with all the teams at this point in the season. We are chasing that hard edge."

Despite Tony's optimism I wondered whether, as we met just over a week before their first game against Warrington Wolves this Saturday, there were injury concerns within the squad?

"This is not a very hostile week," he explained. "We have got to rest any niggles."

Having avoided humiliation during my first run-out with a rugby league team I headed home pleased. Slumped on the bus Tony's assurances that this was a light session undertaken in the days leading up to a game rang through my head.

Just what do the players put themselves through in the early part of the week?

London Broncos opener is on Sunday February 13 against Warrington at Griffin Park.