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Leicester Tigers recruit a champion boxer to tackle their 'Fat Club'
By Online Editors
Last season was a campaign to forget for Leicester. The former giants of English rugby slipped to 11th in the Gallagher Premiership, their worst ever finish in the professional era, a crash that has left them having to participate in the tier two Challenge Cup for the first time.
However, in an effort to ensure the squad is as fighting fit as possible for the delayed start to the 2019/20 season, they have enlisted the help of a local champion boxer to put their larger players through the ringer once a week in the hope they will be in their best shape ever come the first whistle in September.
Rendall Munroe is a former English, Commonwealth, EBU and WBA international boxing champion and he has agreed to add some punch to the Tigers' pre-season, running gruelling session once a week to assist Geordan Murphy's squad members who, according to the club's website, would have been better known in the past as the ‘Fat Club’.
Nicknamed the Boxing Binman, Munroe is running a weekly hour-long session on a Saturday with a club now known as the Bin Bag Bodies as they have to physically wear bags throughout their pre-season session.
It’s a tactic the Tigers backroom staff are hoping can reap handsome rewards. "Rendall is a home-grown, world-class athlete and has achieved some incredible feats in boxing - we would be silly not to want to work with him,” said Alex Martin, Tigers’ head of strength and conditioning.
"The session also presented a chance for to us to take the boys out of the comfortable surrounds of Oval Park and challenge them in a different environment - with a different voice in Rendall leading the session.
"We had a bit of fun with them too and went old school in having them wear bin bags, which boxers are well known for doing, and I was pleased with how they all jumped right into it and embraced the challenge.
"Rendall will continue to work with us throughout the pre-season and it's exciting for the club to have someone of his standing and achievements in our corner, so to speak!”
Aside from the workout under the watchful eye of Munroe and his 2BX crew in Leicester, some players stepped into the ring for a sparring session with the champion boxer. They included George Stankovich, the son of Tigers scrum coach Boris.
WATCH: Episode one of The Academy, the six-part RugbyPass documentary series on how Leicester Tigers develop their young players
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Latest Comments
33, unlikely?
It’s actually an interesting question, how does his RL career impact you perception of his ‘rugby age’?
I’d imagine he’s fresher than a 26 yo rugby player, he’s fitting and done more k’s, but had less impacts (unsure of his injuries).
Anyway, your conclusion doesn’t really hit the mark. What you’ve not asked yourself is would he be better at 33, with 6 years under his belt, than 28/9, and only 2 years experience. If he really is considering it a major goal of course, he may just want an Olympic medal and leave etc.
Still, in relation to your topic, what I suspected would be his thinking is the ever increasing value in playing in Japan. Perhaps he’d try and give this first WC a go, trying to make it in the All Blacks, obviously playing Super Rugby, then he’d take a much bigger contract in Japan? Learn how to run around people with better accuracy and consistency (rofl), and then return to NZ as an improved player to Australia 2027, with the hope to fine tune further and make the most of his marketability in the bonanza that America 2031 is going to leave behind. 33 is still prime earning age and who knows what the MLR market is going to be like them, if teams have started to have major backers etc.
It’s all about the money afterall (yes, I wasn’t referring to his ability re USA31’)!
Go to commentsNo, just an overly zealous fan who doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
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