THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS


Beans means vital calories for Scots
DAVID FERGUSON IN L'ETRAT
THE Scotland squad are setting new targets for strength during training in Saint Etienne, with the help of a hefty consignment of Scottish food.

Baked beans and oatcakes were among the special dietary foods in an 18-ton lorry driven from Edinburgh to the Scottish team base in L'Etrat, a small village near Saint-Etienne. Lorraine Cullen, the squad's nutritionist, has ensured there will be none of the mistakes which dogged the All Blacks in 1995, when they claimed to have been laid low by food in a South African hotel ahead of their final with the hosts, and Ross Beattie, the Scotland No8, who went down during the crucial pool match with Fiji in 2003 with stomach poisoning.

Mark Bitcon, the fitness trainer, took time out yesterday to illuminate the media on exactly how he continues the physical training so prevalent over the summer and insisted the proof of its success was less in the pudding, but coming from it.

"We brought an 18-ton lorry over with a lot of the things we need," he explained, "gym equipment, but also food supplements and Scottish food such as beans and oatcakes, for example. We've also spent a lot of time working with the chefs here. Lorraine has been working every day in the kitchen to make sure the food is perfect, as that is a massive issue when you're away. But everything has gone well for us.

"We've already had two or three lifetime personal bests in the gym while we've been here. Fergus Thomson [the Glasgow hooker] had a personal best bench press just yesterday. The sessions are relatively short compared to what we were doing earlier in the summer, but the intensity is as high as ever.

"We've tapered the training to suit the fact we're now in the tournament, but we're still looking for improvements [in fitness, strength and conditioning]. There's no reason why the guys can't get stronger at this stage."

Bitcon has worked very closely with the players over the past year, alongside a small army of fitness trainers, physios, medics and the nutritionist, to give the Scottish players the chance to compete physically over 80 minutes with the best players in the world. For example, an average male requires around 3,000 calories a day to operate effectively, but the players are currently consuming over 6,000 to refuel and cope with increased morning, afternoon and evening training and recovery sessions.

"We also use carb/protein supplements, which help to get those extra calories in," explained Bitcon. "It's very difficult to get the guys to eat solid food immediately after a session, so the supplements are very useful there.

"The gym here maybe isn't as good as what we've got at Murrayfield, but it is adequate for what we need at this stage of the tournament and everything else is fantastic. It's a perfect training base."

This article was posted on 13-Sep-2007, 07:33 by Hugh Barrow.