Best products from r/rugbyunion

On weight gain - this part is actually easier than you think. I've been a skinny dude for 26 good years, wondering why I could never gain weight despite years of consistent effort in the gym, then put on 45 good pounds last offseason. Get yourself on a good weight training program that focuses on basic compound lifts (squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press), as well as a power movement (power clean or power snatch).

If you're willing to put in the time, read Starting Strength, which is the book that turned me around. 1000% would recommend. This book has the Starting Strength program, too, which has exactly the parameters I discussed above. Stronglifts 5x5 is pretty good too.

Most importantly, you need to eat a fuck load while you're doing this. Lots of protien (1g/pound of body weight). Keep track of this in a calorie counter (MyFitnessPal is good), and make sure you're gaining on average 1 pound per week (will be more at the start). Be consistent with your work and diet all through your offseason, and it will come.

On tackling - My first couple seasons, I played wing, and was terribly shitty at tackling. I spent a year in the pack, which almost got me there (now full time second row!). Once I put on the weight, my confidence in contact soared and I had no problems making tackles. I even played a game or two back on the wing and still made tackles out there, too. The key thing, I found, was mentally training myself to get low enough. As a tall fella, it's hard for me to get low in tackles... I always knew I needed to get low, but could never actually do it in games. I use a mental cue now to get low - it can really only get me to about hip/waist level, but I have enough leverage in my height that it's good enough for me. Deadlifting will help you a bit in recognizing this motor pattern.

Also, this video really helped me visualize the tackling technique within the context of a game (posted on this sub a few months ago). It's football, but the technique discussed is much more like rugby tackling, rather than typical unsafe gridion type of head charges.

The only disadvantage from it all is nobody can lift me in lineouts anymore :) I lift now, which is great for me, since I sucked at jumping anyway.

Good luck - Lift hard, eat big, and tackle strong. I've been in your almost-exact same situation.

Edit: Just wanted to reiterate a point I noticed in /u/GaryDo's post. Don't forget that size and strength are only a couple of tools inside of your rugby player bag. Important tools if used well, for sure, but there are many other skills that make a great player. You'll need fitness, contact technique, agility, game sense, and all that wonderful stuff. But in the mean time, don't be ashamed to concentrate on one goal.

Brian O'Driscoll's was really enjoyable. A pretty candid look into his life and you really get to see behind the scenes with him a bit, both with his rugby career and his personal life too.

Brian Moore's book is really excellent. Much less lighthearted than BOD's but it really made me respect him alot more after everything he went through as a child and his success later in life. Its also an interesting view from someone who was playing as the game lurched into professionalism. The audiobook version is also narrated by Moore apparently so that could be cool.

Dan Carter's is the last one i've read and I enjoyed reading it but it was the most sanitised of the three books. You get the impression his more fun loving side wasn't really allowed to shine through unfortunately but its still interesting to see the sickening ease with which he progressed up to each level of rugby all the way to the top.

I'm not downvoting because I agree that this was a bigger upset. But it wasn't a miracle. Uruguay has been working extremely well. It is the best case example of World Rugby and Agustín Pichot plans for Tier 2/3 nations.

They have a nice stadium they manage, a high performance center, players centrally contracted and not reliant on foreign clubs (OK, some have gone to MLR but waiting for South American franchise league to start), a packed international calendar... Of course World Rugby has supported this financially but because URU proved to be a reliable and trustworthy partner, something unfortunately very few non-Tier 1 unions are.

I have found infuriating how some media takes have been that Uruguay's win proves World Rugby doesn't give enough support to Pacific Islands. Come on, Uruguay is what their bottom performance would be if their governance was half as good as theirs.

I know not so many are fluent in Spanish, but there is an amazing book on URU efforts from 2010 til now by Ignacio Chans that is well worth the money and explains for example how Uruguay chairmen instead of celebrating 2015 RWC presence and make the most out of hotels and catering, they decided to embbed themselves in Argentina's delegation so to knit future ties. This is the result...

I've been using a parachute (a cheap on I bought here) I usually sprint about 5x50m then I do 3x50m and release the chute at 20m. After I'll do 5x40m sprints without the chute with full rest in between sets. I've felt an improvement in my speed but it's still a work in progress. I've also been doing power cleans and other power lifting exercises to build hip power, which I'm sure has contributed, as well.
I hope some of this helps! Good luck!

I highly recommend Moosehead Grubby Putty as it easily washes out and holds well throughout the day, even after wearing a scrum hat the putty will hold my hair back to its original shape. Smells nice like a drumstick lolly as well

Depends on what your desired result is. If you are looking for full thigh compression to possibly improve blood flow and inhibit injury then it sounds like what you have is what you need. There are even shorts with thin padding.

Padded Shorts

If however, you are just looking for something to hold "everything" in place then I would recommend a pair of athletic briefs or boxer shorts. They do the trick and are way better value then expensive advanced fiber compression shorts for what they do. See below

Adidas

Jockey

Hope this helps.

> Surely the fact that people wrote about miracles casts doubts on the reliability of their accounts?

Not really actually, because those events don't matter when we're talking historiography. Like what matters is, for example, Jesus going to a city, talking there, then being executed. We can be pretty certain that happened. Whether after talking a man was cured of leprosy is irrelevant there really when we look at it to determine the events going on.

That's what I mean by separating Theology and Historiography. Like with some of the most blatantly metaphorical parts are not going to reflect anything in history, or even close to it, because they're not meant to. Like the opening of the Bible actually, you're never going to be able to prove or disprove the creation of the universe as it's described there because it's not a scientific manual - it's just a very basic guide to explain in a way that everyone from children to savants can understand that essentially - there's a God, he did it.

But, particularly in the OT, there's lists upon lists upon lists of kings lineages that ruled Israel or other countries that they were at war with and those are only there so that we can look at it and go "yup checks out, those were all kings - there tombs are right here" and then assume that when it says one died fighting or peacefully or whatever that's also accurate.

>I feel like understanding more about the history of the bible and research into historical texts as a whole. You wouldn’t know of a good place to start or done reading material that you would recommend?

This is a decent intro to the actual formation and writing of the Bible.

And this is more about the different interpretations in it.

The first is probably more what you're looking for, I think.

Full disclosure my knowledge on this comes from hundreds of different things over like 10 years of taking my faith seriously rather than one book so if they're completely crap, i'm really sorry, but i've heard good things. :P

http://www.amazon.com/Gilbert-GIL184-BLMD-P-Xact-Rugby-Headguard/dp/B008NHIF3Q/ref=pd_sbs_sg_1

Ive had it for 3 seasons now and still in great condition. Quality scrum cap, comfortable, I can hear, plus it looks good. Nothing to complain about

If you haven't read https://www.amazon.com/Commando-Boer-Journal-War/dp/1539656802 by Deneys Reitz, a 17yo when the second Anglo Boer war started, do yourself a favour. It's a really amazing story of grit and determination. It allowed me to see beyond the fog of apartheid to some of the greatest moments in the history of our country.

The boers don't get credit for sticking it to the colonisers the way they did.

I loved Willie John McBride's 'The Story of My Life.' I met the man himself at the book signing and had a great chat!

also one of my friends had this a while back. it was pretty funny http://www.amazon.com/The-Bluffers-Guide-Rugby-Bluff/dp/1902825969

Frame a picture of Joe Launchbury’s man of the match award against Australia at RWC 2015

Or if you don’t want to crush his soul: https://www.amazon.co.uk/ART-COARSE-RUGBY-Michael-Green/dp/1861050011

The Art of Coarse Rugby is one of the funniest books ever written.

As an American rugby fan in the early 2000s, I had a copy of oneof his Punchup VHS tapes. Apparently it's still on Amazon, on DVD now. Haha. Was just a bunch of argy-bargy from everything from club up to internationals.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pitbulls-Punch-Ups-Brian-Moore/dp/B004CYZHX0

Oh and if you have any recommandation about mouthguards... feel free to tell me. I have a mouthguard I'd like to replace: I feel I have a hard time breathing with the one I have.

Edit: I looked a bit further and I found that one:
https://www.amazon.com/SISU-Guards-Mouthguard-Original-Charcoal/dp/B00N1UJ994/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8

Seems thin, I was wondering if somebody tried it.

And a more classic one:

https://www.amazon.com/Venum-Challenger-Mouthguard-Red-Devi/dp/B00F2U1CTQ/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8

But I'm not certain it would let me breath and talk that easily...

Here is the non-mobile link from the comment above
***
This bot is supported by the referral link above. If you wish to not use a referral link, you may use this link instead.

Get real boots. Especially if you're going to play up front.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00LOZUZP0/https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LOZUZP0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_SJtazbYD49D8N?vs=1

These are fairly priced.

I go with these. They're just short compression shorts.