Hull KR S&C coach Ben Cooper ready for trial and error once Super League players resume training

You would imagine head of strength and conditioning Ben Cooper might be fearful of some of the sights that might meet him given it has been so long since he had access to the squad.

However, like most in his position, he is confident the club’s players will be in “pretty good nick” after training on their own throughout the enforced lockdown following coronavirus.

The issue Cooper is concerned with is having just 19 days to now get them right for that opening game against Toronto Wolfpack on August 2.

“Although fitness wise I think everyone will be okay, it is the strength aspect of it I’m worried about – the contact and wrestle,” he told The Yorkshire Post.

“It’s probably one of the most important things for a team. They haven’t been able to do it at all.

“If you take our example, we’ve got three weeks to try and harden them up, get some drills back into them and get them used to contact again before they play.

“Normally in pre-season you have 12 weeks of gradual build but we haven’t got that facility; we’ll almost have to go straight back into it.

“We do have a pretty good wrestle coach – so that helps – but it’s almost trial and error basis now where we’ll have to see how it goes, recover well and see how it goes again.”

Cooper, 40, was formerly head of strength and conditioning at Castleford Tigers, where he helped them to their first-ever League Leaders’ Shield and Grand Final in 2017.

He left Wheldon Road at the end of the following season and had a year out of the sport before joining the Robins ahead of this campaign, linking up once more with Tony Smith, who was his coach as a young player at Huddersfield Giants.

Asked what he had in store for the players’ return on Monday, Cooper explained: “The plan is a light field session and a light weights session. We want to see what they are like and try and get them all in and seeing one another if we can with social distancing and how we do that will probably be a logistics nightmare.

“But it will be just a light day to assess everybody and then the main work will probably come at the back end of the week.

“Our approach might be different to everyone else but we want to get the ball back in people’s hands as soon as we can.

“We’re limited by social-distancing rules and how many we can have at training et cetera.

“But the conditioning we’ll do will be game-based and getting used to playing rugby again while getting some awareness and co-ordination back for the game.”

Although the Robins are expected to resume with a largely-fit squad, Cooper understandably has fears about the number of players who might get injured following such a short preparation.

He said: “I’m scared of two things. The injuries as if you look at the NRL there’s been a very high incident rate since they returned. They’ve had less time than us off as well but also, when you look at the NFL, when they went on strike for 20 weeks in 2011, their injury rate after was unbelievable.

“I’m also, obviously, worried about the two games per week in terms of the load on players.”

The former Hull FC conditioner was furloughed like the rest of KR’s football staff once the sport was shutdown in March but he also owns a gym in Wakefield.

Government guidelines mean gyms still cannot open despite lockdown rules easing elsewhere.

“I’m not knocking anyone who does it but you can now go back in a pub and drink but not go into the gym and train,” said Cooper. “It is frustrating, especially in a gym like ours as we can control how many people come in; we’re not like a commercial gym but more a reservation-only one.

“I kind of get where the government is coming from and I’m a little calmer than some gym owners but I do want to get back cracking.

“We’re doing outside sessions but it’s raining today and not ideal. When the sun is shining and it’s 30 degrees, it’s great, but it’s not ideal. I’m hoping we’re up and running in a couple of weeks.”

Although it has been an unusual start to life in his new role at KR, Cooper is delighted to be back involved on a daily basis in Super League after that year out.

“You don’t realise just how much you miss it until you’re not there,” he said. I once described myself as a rugby man and I am.

“And you don’t realise how big a club Hull KR is until you’re here.

“It’s got a great backroom team behind it and it’s a club really that if we can get it right it could just take off. That’s our job – to try and create a winning team and successful club.”

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