Recipe For A Great All-Black Rugby Playing Physique

First of all, it is very helpful to have some good strong Maori or Pacific Island genes.  Many of the great All Black players have had a good dose of Pacifica genes which gives them naturally strong bodies, good looks and beautiful skin. No disrespect to the European players such as our  Pakeha All-Black Captain  Fantastic, Richie McCaw, who has just played his 100th match for the All Blacks.  He also has a stunning physique, as do all the team, if you think about it. Richie McCaw is only  the 16th player in All Black history, to clock up 100 international games.  This is surely a mark of his outstanding ability and stamina, as well as his team-player attributes.  Mils Muliaina is the next to clock up the 100th game, which will happen during the NZ World Rugby Cup.

But there is nothing like having beautiful coffee coloured skin to mark you out as a target for the aim of all those news-hungry cameras. Sonny Bill Williams who made  front page news  all about the world last week, exhibiting a lithe and fit brown body as he changed his ripped All Black shirt  mid-field and mid-game,  is part Maori.  Daniel Carter, our fabulous All Black  goal kicker, is another beautiful looking player, with exceptional skills, who has Maori ancestry. Israel Dagg, the young Hawkes Bay player who is already a shining light on the field at the young age of 23, is another.  Daniel Carter is keenly sought after to advertize all manner of things from underwear to heat-pumps to charities, as I expect Israel Dagg will be doing before long.   Tana Umaga, who led the All Blacks for many years before Richie McCaw took over, is a Pacific Islander who has had his share of the spot-light, off field as well as on.  He is still shown on our television in current advertising for many good causes.  Ma’a Nonu, Mils Muliaina  and Jonah Lomu are Pacific Islanders whose physiques are world-famous for their size and strength.  The list goes on….. New All-Black stars Piri Weepu,  Jerome Kaino,  Victor Vito, Sonny Bill Williams,  the well-known Pacific Islanders,  All-Blacks  Ma’a Nonu,  Mils Muliaina and Keven Mealamu,  ex-All Black stars  Buck Shelford, Doug Howlett, Glen Osborne, Taine Randell, and the great stars of the early days, George Nepia, Tom Ellison…

Next important thing, I reckon, after you’ve got your Maori,  Samoan, or Tongan ancestry sorted,  is that you need to eat a lot of New Zealand-made Sanitarium Weet-Bix, to get the energy needed to build a body like Sonny Bill Williams’ and the rest.  Advertisements tell us that Weet-Bix is the classic All-Black rugby player’s breakfast each morning.  Take it or leave it….Some of them  apparently eat around ten or twelve at a time before they go out for their rugby practice.  You probably need about a half a gallon of full-cream New Zealand dairy milk to go with that.  Not that I am recommending that you start eating anything like this amount  of either Weet-Bix or full-cream dairy milk in your effort to emulate the performance and physiques of the All-Blacks:  Besides their daily Weet-Bix cereal, they would have specific foods recommended for them by the All Black nutritionist.  So – you would need a good nutritionist as well.

The All-Black fitness is no haphazard thing:  There are plenty of people to monitor their diets, their activities, their weight, their fitness levels and their general well-being.  Note that they also have their own All Black doctor to watch on their health.  These people are our equivalent to Royalty here in New Zealand.   They are loved by the  whole Nation, who are watching out for their every move, along with  much of the world.

Next, it might be to your advantage to have a coach like Graham Henry – someone  who genuinely cares for his team and  who  “speaks Te Reo Maori – not like our Prime Minister”, said one commentator on Maori television last weekend – Someone to get you up early for your rugby practice – Someone who will keep an eye on you so that you stay healthy, don’t drink too much, and keep you  ‘on the ball’ and motivated to cope with all that hard physical training.

Mind you, having a wonderful and strong body like Sonny Bill Williams does not give you immunity from the dangers of playing rugby. The emotional pressure of being an All-Black  is great:  The great Russell Kirwan, who now coaches the Japanese team, suffered debilitating depression. These players literally take their lives into their hands on a physical level.  And I should think that alcohol excess might be a risk when  the big games are on and you are continually in the spot-light. You don’t hear too much about the casualties – say a prayer for Jonah Lomu who, despite having a great physique, and world fame as a rugby giant,  has been plagued with kidney illness for many years.   He had a kidney transplant several years ago.  Our Sunday paper just yesterday reported that he has recently been admitted  into hospital with a mystery illness.

to be continued tomorrow