Paul Arden | Monday, 9 March 2026
What an extraordinary 6 Nations rugby weekend! Rugby is one of those sports that if you grow up playing, then you enjoy watching when you are too old or sensible to play. I, like I’m sure many others, am less interested in seeing a particular team win than I am in seeing a great game played. I grew up playing no8, then moved to blind-side when I stopped growing taller. Wasn’t really fast enough off the mark to be an open-side, but that was my favourite position.
The game has changed immensely since when I was a player. The professionalism, which has turned players into tanks, has undoubtedly made the game physically harder, but with TMO the game is also much cleaner. Personally I think I preferred the rucking game, with no handling of the ball on the ground. That game committed the pack to breakdowns and arguably made for a more open game. I also enjoy scrums which is a game within a game. And finally, I don’t know of any other sport where after the beating hell out of each other on the pitch for 80 minutes, you socialise with in the bar after like you are the best of friends!
I often wonder if I would be doing Ironman if it wasn’t for playing rugby. I can certainly see the route I took to get here. Sport is sport. Running, throwing, flycasting. It involves discipline, physical and technical training, focus. It’s all there. And it’s a large part of why we do it. It’s not just the 80 minutes on the pitch, or the (hopefully only!) 13hrs-something of enduring tropical Langkawi, or the two or four minutes of casting competition. It’s the training process that takes you there and the enjoyment that this provides.
“How do I structure the next 10 months of training so that I peak on a certain day?” That is of course a coaching question. Any coaching program needs to understand that first. There needs to be a goal, we need to take stock of where we are, and a plan needs to be created to get us where we want to be. Just swishing a rod around on a regular basis is not going to cut it.
I am so busy at the moment it’s unreal! I’m learning Malay, training for Ironman, getting our rod building organised in Texas, keeping up with European orders, coaching.
Have a great day!
Cheers,Paul
POD now the sun has gone down it will be dark in three and a half minutes.