Food for thought as Irish squad get taste of Argentina

The English sportswriter John Hopkins once described tours of New Zealand by the British and Irish Lions as a cross between a medieval crusade and a prep school outing.

Times have changed since, but the fact remains that some tours are longer and more onerous than others.

After ten months of solid rugby, whether training or playing, the thoughts of a two-Test tour on the back of a long-haul flight to somewhere like Resistencia, where Ireland face Argentina today, or Tucuman where they lock horns next week, must be something less than idyllic.

Certainly for your average grizzled vet.

For the greenhorns it is probably less so. Yet no-one’s tour is longer than that of Ruth Wood-Martin’s. Literally. As the IRFU’s performance nutritionist, it is part and parcel of Wood-Martin’s role to fly out ahead of the main party to carefully examine the foods Joe Schmidt’s men will be digesting while away.

Wood-Martin arrived 48 hours before the main party. Though she would have helped with the initial logistics, such as the layout of the team room in their Buenos Aires hotel, the first port of call in BA would have most certainly been that of the Hotel Emperador’s kitchen.

“I’m there early to ensure there are no surprises for the team when they get there, but it starts long before that with a set of guidelines I would send to the team hotels about what it is we need them to provide and avoid. “We point out to them that the food we are serving them is nutrition to help our athletes train and perform.

“What I have found from experience is that instead of telling them what we would like served, we ask them what they do because they may have no idea what we want or our Irish slant and I would have more confidence in them preparing the food they prepare on a regular basis.

“On arrival we sit down with the chefs and catering staff and we go through it all, meal by meal. By getting there early we reduce the risks. Everything is signed off and checklisted.”

Variety is key. So too presentation and, of course, taste. The days of eating brown pasta and dry chicken are over, certainly for your average Irish rugby professional who must eat vast quantities and at regular intervals throughout the day merely to maintain a fighting weight. The challenges are different in every country.

Argentina has a very different cuisine to that found in Ireland or the UK and then there is the sense of unknown that comes with the hotels in the two provincial cities where the team will play.

The basics are simple. Don’t cook with butter or cream. Fresh produce as much as possible. The usual breakdown or proteins, carbohydrates and fats (good versus bad), but you can never think of everything. Like the time one menu listed custard. Great. Except the local custom was to serve it cold. Not so great.

Yet, for the most part, the ‘when in Rome …’ principal applies. Bringing food supplies of their own would be a logistical and financial nightmare and customs officials around the world aren’t keen on foodstuffs being dragged through the arrivals halls. All Wood-Martin packs are the team’s supplements and plenty of Barry’s Tea.

Two years ago, the RFU produced an 85-page document called ‘Nutritional Guidelines for England Players and Coaches’. The IRFU approach is just as strong on the education aspect when it comes to food yet the responsibility ultimately lies with the players given they spend the vast majority of their time away from the squad.

Sticking to a carefully controlled diet at home is one thing but anyone who has ever travelled knows how much harder that is when abroad and the vagaries of a rugby tour demand that players be allowed out of the confines of a team hotel now and again. That means restaurants. Restaurants and temptation. “It is important to get out, to freshen things up, but I’ll know where we are going and anyway the players are all very well-versed to know what they should and shouldn’t be choosing. Eating out once every so often isn’t going to have a huge impact and it is important for performance that they get out for a change of scenery while on tour. I imagine they’ll eat the biggest Argentinian steaks of their lives over there.”