ALSO taking a keen interest in Open Farm Weekend will be Ruth Wood-Martin, head of nutrition at the IRFU and who has worked with Rory Best in his time with the Ireland team.
She said: “I grew up on a farm in County Sligo where my parents owned suckler cows, sheep and sold free-range eggs. This helped me have an appreciation of food and understand the importance of choosing quality, local produce to fuel the body.”
Ruth applied this logic as well as her many years training as a dietitian when she started working for Irish Rugby in 2007 and travelling the world with the senior men’s national team.
“Back then I was the only full-time employed nutritionist, there are now 10 full- and part-time nutritionists employed by IRFU across the island of Ireland. Through changes in science, nutrition is now seen as playing a vitally important role in improving a player’s overall performance.
“Our ultimate goal is to keep the players healthy and available to play through smart, well timed food choices to support their health, training and competition”.
“When it comes to sportsmen playing at a national level, their talent is almost a given, so they are all looking for something to give them the edge. I’m a firm believer that the right nutrition, along with right training and recovery time can be a winning combination.”
A key component of a nutritionist’s role is educating players, in particular younger players in under-age squads, to have a better grasp of what they need to eat to support their performance as they develop and maintain their careers long-term.
“Food is like petrol for the body – the better the petrol, the better the performance. We encourage players at all levels to focus on a food-first approach to meet their nutritional needs; safe sports supplements are considered in supervised nutrition programmes when everything else is right – food intake, hydration, recovery and sleep."
