Jamal Ford-Robinson: 'In the gym we’re not lifting as frequently'

Jamal Ford-Robinson certainly has an invaluable ability to light up the day. Bank holiday Monday provided the latest evidence. Kingsholm was preparing to throw open its gates to welcome fans to an opening training session when there was a sudden commotion in the stadium car park. Camera phones were quickly whipped out and videoing.

“We got a little fine system in place and I was late for a session the other day,” explained the chuckling prop to RugbyPass later that afternoon. “I rolled the dice and I got fancy dress, so I came as Mr Motivator. It seems to have gone down pretty well. I actually got given the outfit by our forwards coach as a secret Santa three years ago and it has been in the wardrobe the whole time just waiting to come out.”

Its appearance was perfectly timed, enabling Ford-Robinson to amusingly continue where he left off last season as the loveable rogue whose social glue personality was celebrated at the club’s end-of-season function. The Sid Smart award is given to the coaches' clubman of the year, someone who not only sets an exceptional example on the field but off it.

Ford-Robinson was the winner, director of rugby George Skivington and co acknowledging how the front-rower impressed playing on both sides of the scrum as well as his general attitude and application around the place. He was chuffed.

“Mr Motivator, some would say,” he quipped. “That was good, it was nice. I had quite a good season, got more game time than I had in previous years because of injuries and yeah, it was just nice to have that recognition, not just from George but from the coaching team as a whole.

“It’s the same thing like winning things: you can have memories of having a good season or good times out on the pitch, whatever it might be. But actually having something physical there to represent that is always quite nice. I was very happy to see that.

“I got an inkling I might get something from the team manager. He didn’t let it slip but said: ‘You’re going to be there, you’re going to be at the awards night?’ I was like. ‘Yeah, I’ll be there’. I had an inkling but I wasn’t sure what I was getting.”

It was after training when Ford-Robinson strolled off the pitch to join RugbyPass on the steps of the West Stand terrace, pen still in his right hand after signing a multitude of autographs for the fans that had just watched the squad go through its pre-season paces.

It was more than a decade ago when the soon-to-be 31-year-old first learned about the lung-bursting rigours of an English Premiership pre-season. Leicester was his home back then and while his Tigers apprenticeship was an immensely rough and tumble ordeal, it ultimately served him well in a career featuring stints at Bristol and Northampton before his 2019 switch to Gloucester.

“I’m a very different person,” he cheerfully confirmed. “My time at Leicester was good because it was my first big club and I was in the academy but that time in my life led me to a point where I had to ask myself a few questions and thankfully come out of it a bit better and have the mindset that I do now.

“I’d change nothing, absolutely nothing. There are different decisions I made along the way that you could look at it and go, ‘Oh, what if, what if?' But honestly, I wouldn’t change anything because anything that didn’t necessarily work out you learn big lessons from. Like that move to Leicester didn’t work out. I was only there for two and a half years but what I learned from going through that I wouldn’t change that for the world.”

About pre-season itself, how much has it changed over the years? “It seems a lot more scientific. It’s not just a case of coming in and running for your life. I remember my first pre-season was at Leicester and most of the time was spent pushing a car around a field and then just knocking seven shades out of each other.

“But there is a bit more thinking going on in it now. It’s a lot more game-based, which seems to be the consensus across the league, a lot of fitness is done by playing touch games, little top-ups here and there. And there is a lot more of a gym focus obviously, especially as a front rower, about getting strong so you can use that in those moments in the scrum and the maul.

“There is no getting away: even though there is a bit more thought gone into it there are still some very dark days in pre-season and those are never that fun. There is always a bit of anxiousness going into those. But what I do look forward to is coming in and seeing everyone. When you are part of a good squad it’s nice to come in and catch up with a load of people, see the mates you are going to go to war with for 12 months. So that is probably my best thing.”

Having trailed away in a poor ninth place in the league last term, Skivington is looking to finesse the Gloucester game plan with a greater emphasis on pace and feeding more possession to the backline. This tactical ambition impacted Ford Robinson’s pre-season. “It has a bit of an effect,” he smiled.

“The last couple of years here, not saying you can get away with being a bit heavier but we played a bit more of a set-piece orientated game and so we were very reliant on our maul and scrum. Not that we are going away from that but there is an emphasis on playing with the ball a bit more, maybe going through some more phases before resorting to kicking.

"Yeah, that is an adjustment we have to make. In the gym we’re not lifting as frequently so that we have a bit more to expend on the field. We’ll have to see how it happens in games but we are expecting to be quite a bit fitter.

“We were probably a victim last year of playing a game where maybe we just don’t have the squad for right now having lost quite a bit of experience and stuff over the previous years. I’m really looking forward to what we can do this year. The way that we are going to play is a lot more suited to the squad that we have… I’d be very, very surprised if we are in the same (ninth) position we were last year.”

Doing less gym curiously improved his scores in recent weeks. “I’ve been doing alright, doing alright. I hit 170 on the bench, which was the first time I have been that high since I did my pec a few years ago. And I’ve had a big squat as well, 250 for three which I have not done before. We have taken a back step in the gym but it’s actually been going alright.”

What helped was being careful on his holidays… unlike fellow prop Fraser Balmain who confessed to RugbyPass a few pre-seasons ago that he made the mistake of holidaying all-inclusive and his weight ballooned. “He came in big,” remembered Ford-Robinson.

“I struggled a bit after lockdown because we were away. That was kind of a pre-season, I put a bit of weight on. But normally I let myself go for about two weeks after we are done and then for those following three weeks try and do a bit of fitness so not coming in in a Fraser situation where you have got two stone to lose.

“I was actually bang on this year, I hover between 118 and 120kgs. I hadn’t really gone away that much. I’d gone away for a week but other than that we were just around Gloucester doing bits and bobs, getting away in the caravan for a few days, so I actually did quite a bit of gym, a few bike sessions and didn’t come back too bad to be fair.”

Pre-season isn’t the only thing that has evolved in the game over his years playing. Scrummaging has also unrolled. “Obviously the rules have changed. I started and we still had a hit. Well, we still had the space for the hit where now we are kind on leaning on and then slipping in.

“And with the number of jobs going down, people are getting better and so you really have to be on your money very much every week, not just in scrummaging but rugby as a whole. There are no easy games anymore so yeah, it’s tough out there.”

It's why Gloucester scrum penalty wins are celebrated. “As a prop, there are not too many opportunities where you can show what you are about. You are not really going to be out there scoring tries. A lot of your tackles are made in and around the ruck, so they are never like the big hits, you’re never going to go on a barnstorming run so your main opportunity is to be dominant in the scrum.