McGurn says academies producing robots

THE IRFU’s former fitness and conditioning coach Mike McGurn has blasted rugby’s obsession with bulking up and claimed that academy systems were producing ‘robots’ who ‘have no game management skills.’

McGurn is fearful that if the trend is allowed to go unchecked the sport will develop into “a game of gridiron where they keep bashing it up”.

Lions doctor, James Robson, expressed fears earlier this year that the trend of muscle-building would lead to a continuing increase of major injuries in the game while England boss Martin Johnson has been forced to make sweeping changes to his squad for the autumn internationals due to an injury crisis.