If ever there was a man who really enjoyed his work, Jonny Davis, Ulster Rugby’s Head of Strength and Conditioning is certainly that man. A former pupil of Belfast High School, Jonny represented Ulster and Ireland at schools level, he played for Dungannon on the wing, and was capped 3 times by Ulster at senior level before a serious injury brought his bourgeoning rugby career to an abrupt conclusion.

As Head of Strength and Conditioning Jonny is responsible for the fitness of the Ulster players, which in today’s professional game is a rather challenging brief. The pre-season training went extremely well, and the team hit the field in really great shape, many have commented on this aspect of Ulster’s performances to date.

Having taken Ulster through the first part of the season it must be difficult to now have a 5-week break in your programme? “Yes it is difficult for sure. It is all about getting the balance between the guys breaking up to go to the three different squads. We have the national guys, the national A’s and then the Ravens. Last year we didn’t have that, it was a broken season, and the fact that we didn’t have any games to fill the void at this stage of the season, we had a greater emphasis placed on conditioning the players at this time.

“This year they are definitely going to get their conditioning through playing games with the national teams or with the Ravens, but when they come back to us we will build up the intensity of the pitch and gym training, then taper that off just before the week of the Glasgow game.”

How do you track the performance of the players in the national squads? “When they go to the national camp they just prepare for the games. We do get the workload rates from the camps the same way as we supply those figures to the national strength and conditioning coach Paul Pook. It shows the Irish conditioning guys what our players have been achieving in the province. They also need to know how many minutes they have played on the pitch, we monitor this and it averages out to be around 240 minutes per week. This is broken down into four sessions. The first is team organisation; the next is units, followed by skills culminating in the Captain’s Run before the game. So even though some players leave our base we have an accurate audit on how they have performed in the various camps. Then as you go through the season you can manipulate the intensity of the sessions between a scale of one to ten, one being fairly easy and ten being full on."

Another area in which you are directly concerned with is the rehabilitation of injured players? “This is a very satisfying aspect of my work, especially when you work with a player, and in particular a player who unfortunately has sustained a long term injury. I will plan their programme of rehabilitation to enable them return to action on the pitch, fitter and stronger than before.

The players must have considerable trust in you? “My approach is simple, rather than really telling a player what he has to do, I like to inform them, educate them as to why they need to be doing the various exercises I set. By following the programmes I prepare the players develop an appreciation of what can be achieved, and more often than not they return to action fitter and stronger than before their injury.”

How are things shaping up for Glasgow next week? "We will get these matches at the weekend over us, the Ravens are away in Moseley and the national teams are playing in Dublin. When the boys return on Monday we will be able to fully assess their condition, but in general the majority are fit and well and ready for action."