Rugby Development Coach

Protein gets broken down into amino acids — and amino acids are the building blocks your body uses to repair everything. Muscle fibres torn during training, bone density, organs, blood cells, hair, skin. Everything. If you're not getting enough protein, recovery suffers, muscle growth stalls, and you'll constantly feel beat up.

Not all protein is equal. Animal-based proteins — red meat, eggs, fish, dairy — are complete proteins. They contain all nine essential amino acids and are highly bioavailable, meaning your body actually absorbs and uses most of what you eat. Plant-based proteins are incomplete and significantly less bioavailable. You'd need to eat considerably more to get the same effect, which often causes gut issues.

Best RDC sources: Rump steak, beef mince, chicken thighs, salmon, eggs, sardines, lamb, slow cooked bone-in cuts, Greek yoghurt, grass-fed whey.

Why you stay hungry: Research and practical experience both show the same thing — you'll keep being hungry until you've hit your protein target for the day. If you're always hungry, you're almost always under-eating protein, not calories.

Carbohydrates break down into glucose — your body and brain's preferred fast fuel. During high-intensity rugby training, your muscles run almost entirely on glycogen (stored glucose). When glycogen runs low, performance drops hard — you feel flat, your legs go heavy, your brain slows down. This is the fatigue mechanism most players hit in the second half.

Not all carbs are the same. The glycaemic index (GI) tells you how fast a carb raises blood sugar. High GI foods raise it fast — good for immediately before or during training. Low-to-moderate GI foods raise it slowly — better for meals a few hours before.

• Before training (2–3hrs): White rice, sweet potato, oats — moderate GI, sustained energy
• Before training (30–60min): Banana, honey, OJ, dates — high GI, fast fuel
• During training / game: OJ and honey, watermelon juice — immediate glucose
• After training: White rice, sweet potato, sourdough — replenish glycogen fast
• Rest days / low activity: Keep carbs lower — you don't need the fuel, excess gets stored as fat

Carbs and the brain: Your brain runs on glucose too. Mental fatigue, slow decisions, and poor concentration late in a game are often a sign your blood glucose has dropped — not just your legs. This is why having carbs during a game (OJ and honey at halftime) improves on-field decision-making, not just physical output.

The timing of your carbohydrates matters as much as the amount. Here's how Pat structures it:

Rest days: On days you're not training, your carb needs drop significantly. You don't need to replenish glycogen you haven't used. Keep carbs lower on rest days — focus on protein and fats — and your body composition will improve faster than players eating the same amount every day.

Fat got a terrible reputation for decades and it was wrong. Your brain is roughly 60% fat. Your testosterone and other hormones are made from cholesterol — a fat. Fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K can only be absorbed when fat is present. Low fat diets produce low testosterone, poor brain function, and compromised immunity.

Fat as fuel: Fat is your slow-burning energy source. It needs oxygen to be broken down, so it's not great for explosive sprint efforts — but it's excellent for longer, lower-intensity work. Athletes who eat quality fats and have periods of lower carbohydrate intake become better at using fat as fuel, which preserves glycogen for when you really need it.

• Grass-fed butter / ghee — cooking fat, fat-soluble vitamins
• Avocado — monounsaturated fats, potassium
• Fatty fish (salmon, sardines, mackerel) — omega-3s, DHA for brain
• Eggs (whole, never just whites) — cholesterol for hormones, choline for brain
• Bone-in meat cuts — marrow fat packed with fat-soluble vitamins
• Coconut oil — medium-chain triglycerides, fast-burning fat energy

Fat loss comes down to being in a calorie deficit — burning more than you eat. But how you create that deficit matters enormously, especially for athletes who need to keep their muscle, strength, and performance while losing fat.

The biggest mistake: Eating the same low amount every day regardless of training. This tanks your performance, muscle mass, and testosterone. A much smarter approach is to cycle your intake around training.

The leaning out threshold: If your body fat is above 15%, Pat's recommendation is to lean out first before focusing on building muscle. Here's why — when you're carrying excess body fat, insulin sensitivity is reduced. That means even when you eat carbs and protein, your body doesn't deliver them to muscle cells as efficiently. Get lean first, and everything else — muscle gain, performance, energy — improves automatically.

• Hit your protein target every day — 1.6–2g per kg. This preserves muscle while in a deficit.
• Eat carbs before training — don't cut carbs before sessions, it kills performance and muscle retention.
• Cut carbs on rest days — focus on protein, fats, and vegetables instead.
• Don't skip meals — being too hungry leads to poor food choices. Eat structured meals.
• Prioritise sleep — poor sleep raises cortisol, which drives fat storage and muscle breakdown. Non-negotiable.
• ACV before high-protein meals — improves digestion and nutrient absorption. Better absorption = better body composition.
• Stay hydrated — dehydration is often mistaken for hunger. Drink water and electrolytes consistently.
• Avoid seed oils and processed food — these drive inflammation which makes fat loss harder and recovery worse.
• Be consistent over perfect — one bad meal doesn't matter. A week of bad eating does. Build habits, not streaks.

If contact is your game — harder to move at the breakdown, more powerful in the maul, harder to knock off the ball — then putting on size is a legitimate goal. And here's the honest truth: putting on size means you will put on some fat alongside muscle. That's completely okay for rugby.

That extra weight — even if it's not all lean muscle — still adds to your contact power. A bigger frame absorbs hits better, drives harder, and is more difficult to shift. You don't need to be a bodybuilder with 8% body fat to be effective in contact. You need to be strong, physical, and heavy enough to impose yourself. The size itself has value in this sport.

Accept the fat gain — then manage it: When you're in a meaningful calorie surplus, your body stores some fat alongside muscle. That's normal physiology. The fat you put on during a mass phase isn't wasted — it's part of the process. Once you've built the size and strength you're after, you can lean out and reveal the work underneath. Trying to gain mass without any fat gain is a losing battle that keeps most players permanently small.

What "eating more" actually means: Most players think they're eating a lot and they're not. Track your food for a week and you'll find you're usually 500–800 calories under what you think. A genuine mass phase means 300–500 calories above your maintenance, consistently, for months. Not just on days you feel hungry.

The gym plan: Size without a structured progressive overload program is mostly fat gain. You need to be getting stronger over time — squat, deadlift, bench, row, carry. If your lifts aren't progressing month to month, the stimulus for muscle growth isn't there. Find a program with a good coach behind it and stick to it.

Keep your speed sessions: 1–2 sprint sessions per week through your mass phase is non-negotiable. Short, sharp — acceleration work, not long runs. This maintains fast-twitch muscle fibre, keeps your rugby fitness, and ensures the size you're adding makes you a better player rather than just a heavier one.

The hardest part of building mass is hitting your calorie target when your appetite isn't there. These snacks make it easier:

• Full cream milk and honey — 300ml milk + 2 tbsp honey. ~350 calories, barely any effort. Do this twice a day and you've added 700 calories.
• Full cream milk and maple syrup — same as above, different flavour. Real maple syrup only.
• Medjool dates and almond butter — 3 dates stuffed with almond butter. Dense calories, great before training.
• Greek yoghurt, honey and oats — mix full fat Greek yoghurt with raw oats and honey. High protein, high calorie, easy to make in a big batch.
• Banana and nut butter — banana with 2 tbsp almond or cashew butter. ~350 calories, portable.
• Avocado and sourdough — 2 slices organic sourdough, whole avocado, salt. Clean, easy, calorie dense.
• Whole eggs scrambled in butter — 4 eggs in grass-fed butter. ~350 calories, packed with protein and fat-soluble vitamins.
• Bone broth with butter — add a tablespoon of grass-fed butter to your bone broth. Adds healthy fats and calories without bloating.
• Rice with butter and salt — a big bowl of white rice with a knob of grass-fed butter. Cheap, easy, effective. Add it to any meal to increase the carb and calorie count.

Gaining lean muscle — muscle without significant fat gain — is the slowest approach. But for players who want to stay lean and athletic while gradually getting stronger and more muscular, it's the right approach. This isn't a shortcut. It's about being consistent over a long time.

What this means practically: If you're new to training, be patient but know that progress will come relatively quickly if you do the work. If you've been training for years, don't chase the numbers a beginner gets. Your goal is to keep getting incrementally stronger, stay lean, and build the body composition that makes you the best rugby player you can be — not to match what an 18-year-old just starting out can do.

Consistency of quality training matters most. This is the one thing that separates players who build real muscle over time from those who stay the same year after year. Not the program, not the supplements, not the perfect meal plan — consistent, quality training over a long period of time. You can eat perfectly and go nowhere without it. Miss sessions regularly, change programs every 6 weeks, or train without real intent and no amount of nutrition will save you.

What quality training actually means: Turning up is the baseline — not the achievement. Quality means training with purpose. Progressive overload — consistently adding weight, reps, or difficulty over time. If your lifts haven't moved in months, the stimulus for growth isn't there regardless of what you eat. A well-structured program followed with genuine effort for 6–12 months will always beat the player who jumps between the latest programs looking for the magic fix.

The nutrition approach: Lean muscle gain requires a small calorie surplus — roughly 150–250 calories above your maintenance. Not 500. Not 1000. Small and consistent. You're giving your body just enough extra fuel to support muscle growth without storing the excess as fat. But this only works if the training stimulus is there to begin with.

• Gradually increase calories as you gain muscle — your maintenance rises as you get bigger, so intake needs to rise with it
• Hit your protein target every day — 1.8–2g per kg bodyweight. Non-negotiable
• Time carbs around training — before and after sessions, lower on rest days
• Track your weight weekly — for an experienced lifter, gaining 0.5–1kg over a month is solid progress. Don't expect more than that
• If fat is creeping up — reduce calories on non-training days. Keep training day intake the same. Simplest lever to pull
• Consistency with food matters more than training — Pat has been training for 20 years. The difference between good and great results comes down to what you eat, day in day out, not just how hard you train

Signs the approach is working: Strength going up in the gym over time. Bodyweight increasing slowly. Energy stable. Performance on the field maintained or improving. Body fat staying in check. If all of these are moving in the right direction — don't change anything.

Most people focus entirely on what they eat and almost never on whether they're actually absorbing it. Pat's view: you are what you eat AND what you absorb. A compromised gut means compromised results regardless of how good your food is.

• ACV before high-protein meals — increases stomach acid, which is what breaks down protein into amino acids. Low stomach acid = poor protein absorption = poor recovery.
• Keep food simple — the more variety and complexity in a meal, the harder the gut has to work. Meat, rice, vegetables, water is easier on your digestion than a complex mixed dish.
• Bone broth daily — the glycine and glutamine in bone broth heal and maintain your gut lining. A healthy gut lining absorbs nutrients properly.
• Avoid seed oils — your body doesn't produce enzymes to break them down efficiently. They cause inflammation in the gut wall and compromise absorption.
• Don't overdo fibre — especially on training days. High fibre foods slow digestion. Save them for rest days or evenings.

Calories in vs calories out is real — but it's not the whole picture. Your hormones determine how your body partitions the food you eat. Are those calories going to muscle or fat? Are you recovering or breaking down? Hormones make that call.

• Insulin — released when you eat carbs. On training days it shuttles nutrients into muscle. On rest days excess insulin promotes fat storage. This is why carb timing matters.
• Testosterone — your primary muscle-building and fat-burning hormone. Supported by dietary fat (especially saturated and monounsaturated), zinc, boron, quality sleep, and reduced stress. Crushed by seed oils, low fat diets, poor sleep, and chronic stress.
• Cortisol — your stress hormone. Short-term it's useful for performance. Chronically elevated (from poor sleep, overtraining, under-eating) it breaks down muscle and stores fat, particularly around the abdomen.
• Growth Hormone — released primarily during deep sleep and fasting. This is why quality sleep and not eating late are powerful fat loss and recovery tools.

• Not enough protein. The single most common issue. Players eating 80g when they need 160g wonder why they're not recovering or growing. Hit your target every day, non-negotiable.
• Eating junk to gain weight. Putting on fat, getting inflamed, ruining gut health, becoming slower and more injury-prone. This is not bulking — this is just getting fat. Gain weight with quality food.
• Training on empty. No fuel going in means poor performance, higher injury risk, and more muscle breakdown. Always have something before training.
• Same calories every day regardless of training. See the fat loss section. Cycle your intake. Eat more when you train, less when you rest.
• Relying on supplements before fixing food. Supplements are the 10%. A creatine supplement doesn't fix a bad diet. Nail your food first — then add supplements to enhance an already solid base.
• Chronic dehydration. Most athletes are operating at 1–2% dehydration without realising it. That's enough to measurably reduce strength, endurance, and decision-making. Drink more, add electrolytes.
• Seed oils everywhere. Deep-fried food, most takeaway, most packaged food, most sauces and dressings. These drive inflammation, compromise gut health, and make recovery harder. Cook with butter, ghee, or coconut oil. Read labels.
• Poor sleep. Nutrition can't outrun chronic sleep deprivation. Muscle breakdown increases, fat storage increases, performance drops. Sleep is a non-negotiable part of the program.