Some of the Club's achievements:
- Has won the Sydney First Grade Premiership for the past four years
- Has defeated the Brisbane Club Premiers in both 2007 and 2008 to claim the title of Australian Club Champions
- Has won the last five Sydney Club Championships as well as the last four Colts Club Championships
- Has won Premierships in all three Colts Grades in both 2007 and 2008
- Was undefeated in 24 matches in First Grade Colts in 2008
"Responding to this, Sydney University's rugby club
has been able to demonstrate that with the right combination of coach
and infrastructure, it is possible to fast track the physical
development of players outside a professional playing environment. In
fact within a couple of seasons these players are able to achieve a
body mass comparable to that of seasoned professionals together with a
solid foundation of basic strength." Current-year
data confirms that this is still the case. Based on the player data
listed on their websites the average body weights of the current squads
for the Wallabies, Waratahs and Brumbies are 103.0, 103.3 and 102.0kg
respectively. The average body weight for Sydney University's starting
fifteen in this month's First Grade Grand Final was 101.5kg. It is true
that this team included three Wallabies in Phil Waugh, Al Campbell and
Dean Mumm, but even with these players excluded the team's average body
weight was still 100.1kg. It can be seen that the young, part-time,
unpaid Sydney University players weigh only a couple of kilograms less
than seasoned professionals. For
the past five years the University Club has been operating an Elite
Development Squad (EDS) program for its top Grade and Colts players.
Utilising one of the best equipped gymnasiums in Australian rugb  y,
players train for eleven months of the year and undertake four weights
sessions per week off-season and two to three while playing. The program's strength and conditioning components have been devised by Martin Harland
and administered by him and his assistant, Tim Leahy. Harland's
programs for rugby players place a high degree of emphasis on basic
strength development and rugby-specific fitness. A distinguishing
feature of his approach is a concentration on heavy lower body work. In
the past couple of years he has decreased the amount of squatting and
deadlifting and and made more intensive use of the MyoQuip ScrumTruk
and HipneeThrust, apparatus that targets the large mass leg extensor
muscles, specifically the gluteal and quadriceps groups. Exposing backline players to basic strength training Another
distinctive feature of Martin Harland's rugby training regimen is his
requirement that backs undertake the same rigorous basic strength
routines as forwards. Many strength and conditioning coaches reserve
the heavy "grunt" work for forwards, or even restrict it to the tight
five. Exposing backs to very
serious weight training has produced quite significant results at
Sydney University, as evidenced by the following table comparing body
weights of forwards and backs for the Wallabies, two of the four
Australian Super 14 franchises and Sydney University: (This article also appears on the MyoQuip Blog
website)
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