As the domestic Super League season comes to an end, England’s rugby players now point their focus to the Ashes affair of three games that is back after more than 20 years. To keep playing, they must rehabilitate and build in injuries better to resist the brutality that is yet to come.
With this in mind, M&F made the journey to the Wigan Warriors training facility in Greater Manchester, where various England players call home, so that we could learn more about their search for international success from the end of October and on November 8, 2025. Since 1908, England and Australia have had fights on the rugby field In a series of games that lead to the final dominance and bragging one team to keep the ‘Ashes Cup’. Just as with the cricket series with the same name, possessing the ashes means the symbolic death of the losing team, but although the competitive rivalry between England and Australia has not removed in more than a hundred years, the training methods certainly have that.
The first thing you have to understand about Rugby League is that there is really nowhere to hide on the field.
Whatever your position, you must be strong and fast, bright and flexible, and the sport is also growing on the worldwide stage. Wigan Warriors and the Warrington Wolves recently went against each other in the First of all Super League match on American soil with a match at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegaspull a crowd of more than 50,000 people into the process. Many football fans at the Rugby League for its continuous current and rapid resumption of the game, which leads to a rapidly rising fan base.
Rugby League players balance the effort with food to maximize performance
The players start their training day at 8.30 am before breakfast and make sure you load for you with a lot of carbohydrates and proteins with an epic session. We are talking about a good old -fashioned English breakfast here with sausages, eggs, bacon and beans on toast. After a short break, the team then enjoys pleasing and games such as a casual cricket before he goes to the ultramodern gym in Wigan Warriors for training.
Power and conditioning sessions are under the supervision of coach Chris Baron and his team, who offer the athletes individual programs based on their current health state. A quick look around the gym floor shows that some players focus more on rehabilitation and mobility, while others go all the way with a seriously intense lifting.
After the Super League season has ended, players must keep their fitness and deal with wear to make the cut with England while the international competitions are marching.
“You want to clearly get the load in the gym, but it is well in balance, with the stuff that we do in the field,” explains Junior Nsemba, the 21-year-old attacker for Wigan Warriors and Team England, who must be in balance with not too much bulk.
The gym session itself consists of composite exercises such as heavy barbell bench press or sitting dumbbellers, designed to test different muscle groups to replicate the requirements of gameplay. Every exercise must be functional. No stone remains undisturbed: from weighted pullups, plyometric breast-to-bar muscle-ups or land mine rows, every movement is about building an all-round athlete for rugby league. Nsemba shares that if he turns on too much unwanted fat, he will probably get more running to do when they practice on the field.
Counting calories seems to be the easier option here! “We have all the coaches, the nutritionists and physios … so we have all the help we need,” adds Nsemba, who has won a Player of the Year Award for the 2024 season. “I was actually struggling about what to eat for a competition,” he reveals early childhood diseases, but noticed that he was soon supported. “It’s really for the better,” he confirms. “So I feel that my fitness has grown during the season.”
The subject of food is certainly one of the areas where Rugby has been the most advanced in the last twenty years. “I would say that food is probably more important than the training,” explains Ethan Harvard, the 24-year-old prop on the front line of all cruelty. “The quality of what you eat, and the quantity is very important,” he adds. “It is very important to put good nutrients again, after a heavy session, and it is what keeps you on the field longer.”
Harvard debuted with England in 2023 and plays a crucial role in both defense and attack. Rugby League players can burn 1,000 calories at this level in a game of 80 minutes, so good food is an essential part of the strategy of a player.
Struggling is the ultimate body weight exercise for rugby
While gym training and exercises appear on the field on the field, the obvious ways to train, the coaches here also test the players with a variety of other disciplines. Reaction times are improved by sending speed -crossing tennis balls for players to catch randomly. Then there is the ultimate challenge for body weight: struggling matt.
“The boys must be physically strong in the gym, but they must also be able to transfer that to handling bodies, what they need to struggle,” explains Sean O’Loughlin, the former Englander and Wigan Warriors captain, who now serves as an assistant coach.
While I brave (or foolish) try to take the ball in the wrestling class, I am in the right way humiliated and crushed like a bug. But despite my age and inadequacy, I immediately feel that I am part of a team that wants to be at the top of their game. Luke Thompson, regularly, is an impressive force on the field, but behind closed doors he is a motivator and advises me to better support myself with a well -placed knee before trying a landmijnpers in the gym.
Opposite me on this point is Brad O’Neill, the 23-year-old player who made his debut for England as a whore in 2024. I offer my own support words while taking a heavy bench press.
“We all have a good connection in the club and outside the club,” explains Nsemba of the infectious companionship. The work ethics that is shown at Wigan Warriors is not lost at Dean Lester, who acts as Academy Welfare & Wellbeing Manager, and as an S&C coach at the club. “It’s incredible,” he notes. “We really only try to build our capacity for the requirements of the game.” Yet the warmth and fuzziness that has been invested in the prizes of teammates is always fleeting when you prepare yourself to fight violent giants on the rugby field. “We have to place it to them and then restore it on the back, and be ready to do it again the following week,” explains Ethan Harvard of the work. While they are meals two before they go outside for more hours of practice on the field, I leave Wigan with incredible respect for these worthy warriors.
Rivalry will be ruled when England takes on Australia in the ABK Beer Rugby League Ashes this fall. The two nations will meet in a three-match test series, more than 20 years in the making, and with the second and third test now fully sold out, Wembley Stadium is your last chance to view this bright rivalry live on Saturday 25 October.
Book your Wembley tickets here.
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