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Ireland’s Tommy O’Donnell during a press conference ahead of the Autumn International match against Georgia earlier this year. Photo: Brendan Moran / SPORTSFILE

South Tipperary rugby player Tommy O'Donnell has been steadily rising through the ranks since he first joined Munster and has had a few big wins with the province, as well as playing for Ireland.

When people look at rugby players, they often think of them almost like the hulk, with power, strength, fitness and a diet that are not possible for other people, but Tommy spoke to The Avondhu about his training regime, how he stays focussed and how important diet and exercise technique are.

Tommy has three brothers and is living in Castletroy in Limerick, but is originally from Cahir, while his father is originally from Glenbrohane and he also has relatives in Galbally and across South Limerick and South Tipperary.

The 27-year-old always played GAA and only got interested in rugby when he was about 14 and in secondary school.

Like any sport, Tommy stressed that you have to think beyond the playing field and always be prepared for a life beyond rugby, because an injury could strike at any time and for some, that can spell the end of their career.

"You constantly have to be thinking about life after rugby, just in case, because it can end tomorrow with a bad injury. I'm lucky that I have my degree from UL in sport science and I'm always looking for new opportunities to study and checking out courses," he said.

"When some players started playing rugby, they were brought in at 19 or 20 straight into the system and never had time for study, so when they finish, they've a wealth of experience in rugby and if you can add a degree to that while you're playing rugby, the future is very bright.

"People look very positively on that, that you can say 'I got an honours degree, while playing professional rugby' and it shows that you can commit yourself."

When Tommy first started with Munster, it was through the academy at 19 and while he had less demands going through the academy, it was still tough to split his time between training and college, as he would start out with a morning training session, go to college and then train again in the evening.

Unlike some other sports, there isn't much downtime for the rugby players, as they only really get a month off and even at Christmas, they have matches in the festive season and usually a match on Stephen's Day, so when everyone else is getting ready to hit the town, the players are tucking into a pre-match meal and psyching up for the next game.

While Tommy got over the hurdle of splitting his time between training and college, he says that fitting in family events can also be tricky, as a lot of things like weddings or important birthday parties often fall on a weekend and could clash with a game.

FUEL FOR THE BODY

Tommy's degree has given him a solid background in the science behind what he puts into his body with his diet and what he expects from it, with his exercise regime.

His diet would change throughout the year and just before the season starts, he would focus on coming into the first games really fit and lean.

"I'd be looking to reduce carbs, increase muscle mas and for weight sessions, increase protein and during the week, you'd eat enough to literally keep your body going and on a Thursday or Friday to get ready for a Saturday game, you would increase the carbs.

"Contrary to rumour, we don't eat huge portions of food. Our nutritionist would advise us to eat six or eight small meals a day, which seems like a lot, but isn't. Start off with porridge in the morning and a protein shake, then have eggs or toast a few hours later, then a sandwich after that, a big dinner and a snack before bed of something like cottage cheese or mackerel.

"It's like a car constantly needing petrol fed into it, your body never really goes into peaks and dips if you are constantly topping up the food levels."

He said that he tries to eat a lot of vegetables and with a typical dinner would try to have a lot of vegetables and only a small portion of carbs and a normal portion of meat.

STRENGTH AND FITNESS

The squad would concentrate a lot on core training with things like squats, bench pressing and pulling exercises, but Tommy stressed that it's all about different variations and keeping the body fresh, rather than repeating the same exercises with the same level of resistance week after week.

"You'd be amazed at how quickly the body adapts, if you are doing the same exercises, you'll go up and then plateau, but if you constantly change the exercises, you'll keep going up and up, so that's the role of our strength and conditioning coaches. It's all about keeping the body fresh and ready for the weekend."

The technological advancements also go a great deal towards helping the players to monitor and track their fitness and progress.

When the players get into the gym, there's an iPad on the wall and they get on the weighing scales, test their flexibility, put in any soreness or injuries and enter in what kind of mood they are in.

When they are on the field, they have a GPS box on their neck to tell them how far they go, what kind of contacts they have, accelerations and top speeds reached and this allows the team to design the training around the highest values achieved in training sessions.

Before a match, Tommy said that he tries to get into the zone and if you're nervous, it's all about channelling that nervous energy into the game.

With more of a focus on fitness and health of late, Tommy stressed that it's really important to maintain a good technique.

"It's very easy to injure yourself and I would always say, if you feel like you're going to fail, get out.

"Things like CrossFit push people to further fitness and out of their comfort zones, but for younger people, I'd say rather than going for big weights, learn a proper technique."

There is a lot of media focus on the sport, with the games featuring in prime time television slots and there's an article about some aspect of rugby daily in the papers, and Tommy said that it's great for kids to be following the sport and looking up to their favourite players.

"It's great that a lot of young players want to do rugby because they see you on TV. It's a good sport and you can really embrace the contact of it, but you don't have to be a one sport kid either.

"At the moment, I'm just trying to win as much with Munster as I can. You've worked and laboured for years at trying to get better and better and it's a small bit of recognition - personally for me, I just want to get better and better."

When he's not training, Tommy tries to enjoy his downtime by playing a bit of golf in the summer, going to meet friends for coffee, watching TV, playing on the computer and he has also taken up shooting.

Tommy is very well supported by his family and he said that the support out there is one of the best things, as he described the crowds as 'amazing' at matches.

"The game is constantly changing, there are fast games and slow games and some are very physical or very open - you'll never come out of a game feeling the same, it's constantly different," he said.

Tommy is not sure what lies ahead, but he assured readers of The Avondhu that considering how late he came into the game, he plans to continue playing until his mid thirties and then he may look into something like coaching, but said it's a 'bit early to tell'.

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