In The Spotlight - Paul Heaney (Rainey Old Boys)

This week we are branching into a different sport with our In The Spotlight section.  In World Cup year we are trying to bring rugby more into our blog.  It is often interesting to see what other sports are doing and how they prepare.

Rainey Old Boys open their All-Ireland League campaign on Saturday 1^st October to Ards.  We talk to Paul Heaney as they prepare for the season ahead.  In GAA Paul also has represented Derry at minor level and won Intermediate championship last season with Castledawson.

Name: Paul Heaney

Height 6-1

Weight 95kg 

Occupation: Student

Club: Rainey Old Boys

Position: Back row

Favourite Food: Filled soda

Favourite Drink: Miller

Favourite Music: Rock

Pre Match meal: Pasta

Pre Match superstitions: None

Length of Rugby career: 10 years, got into playing in through school.  Represented Ulster at U19 level.

Training Frequency: Two team sessions per week, with one or two individual sessions, like weights or cardio. Then a match on Saturday

What does the training consist of?

Tuesday training will be mostly drills with contact, to work on certain area of our game and/or fitness. On a Thursday, it will be a lighter session to be fresh and prepare for Saturday match.  We can concentrate of different plays, lineouts and scrumaging

Are there special diet and training programmes depending on what position you play?

No special diet at this level, at a professional stage there would be.

In team training there is nothing specific for individuals but forwards and back will split a lot for backs to work on back moves on their own or forward to work on line outs etc.

When training individually training will vary as some positions will need more speed work and others more weight training, hookers to work on line outs and no.10’s to work on kicking.

Do you use Video Analysis? If so what way does club use it?

Use it mainly for defence to spot if individuals are shooting the defensive line and also if there is not enough line speed. In attack if we are not making use of space available to us in certain area of the field.

Every position will be watching for different things.  The number 10 looking at kicks behind their defence, back three looking if they are covering the space well enough and hookers watching their line out throws.

How much preparation do you do on particular calls and set plays?

The majority of Thursday training every week will be dedicated to team pattering and individual plays and lineout calls. A lot of time will be spent going through these calls.