As we left the Hill Dickinson Stadium we wondered how the squad would get to Argentina
England’s sports-science challenge begins with a deceptively simple question: how do you actually get an international rugby squad from Liverpool to Santiago del Estero?
There are no direct flights from Liverpool or Manchester to Santiago del Estero and no direct Manchester to Buenos Aires service. A conventional scheduled route from Manchester would therefore require England to fly first to a European hub such as Madrid, Paris or Amsterdam, continue across the Atlantic to Buenos Aires and then make another connection for the final flight north-west to Santiago del Estero. Studying FlightScanner and Kayak gives you this fairly quickly; although the England Management team will have looked slightly sooner than Saturday evening!
For an ordinary passenger, that is inconvenient. For an international rugby squad carrying medical, analysis and training equipment and attempting to recover from a Test match; it is a significant performance problem.
London Heathrow potentially provides a cleaner solution.
Rather than flying from Manchester and adding a European connection, England could travel by private coach from Liverpool to Heathrow before taking a long-haul service to Buenos Aires. Although that means spending approximately four hours on the road, it removes one airport connection, one additional flight and another opportunity for baggage delays, disrupted meals and lost recovery time.
For sports scientists, the shortest geographical journey is not necessarily the best journey. The objective is to minimise the number of transitions.
Every time players leave a coach, enter a terminal, pass through security, wait at a gate, board another aircraft and collect baggage, the journey becomes more physically and mentally demanding.
The London option could therefore look something like this:
Liverpool → Heathrow → Buenos Aires → Santiago del Estero.
Even then, there is another complication.
International flights arrive at Ezeiza International Airport, while many scheduled domestic services to Santiago del Estero operate from Aeroparque Jorge Newbery, closer to central Buenos Aires. Transferring between the two airports would require England to cross part of one of South America’s largest cities by road.
For a touring squad, that could add several more hours to an already demanding journey.
The elite-sport solution may therefore be a charter.
England could travel on a scheduled long-haul service from Heathrow to Buenos Aires and then transfer directly from Ezeiza to a privately arranged aircraft for the approximately two-hour flight to Santiago del Estero.
That would allow the Rugby Football Union to control the timing of the final sector, keep the players, staff and equipment together and avoid transferring across Buenos Aires to another airport.
A plausible schedule would see England remain in Liverpool on Saturday night following the Fiji Test.
Sunday morning could be devoted to sleep, medical assessment and recovery. The players could then travel by private coach to Heathrow during the afternoon before boarding an overnight flight to Argentina.
If the connections or charter arrangements, worked efficiently, the squad could potentially reach Santiago del Estero by Monday evening.
That would leave Tuesday primarily for recovery, Wednesday for the most significant rugby session of the week, Thursday for tactical and set-piece preparation, Friday for the captain’s run and Saturday for the Test.
It sounds comfortable when written as a weekly schedule.
It is anything but.
By the time England reach their hotel in Santiago del Estero, some players may have spent close to a full day moving between a hotel, coach, airport terminal, long-haul aircraft, another aircraft and another coach.
And they will be doing it while recovering from an international rugby match played less than 48 hours earlier.
This is why travel itself becomes part of the performance programme.
The decision between Manchester and Heathrow, between a scheduled connection and a charter, and even the precise time the team coach leaves Liverpool can ultimately influence how much quality sleep a player gets and how effectively he can train two days later.
At this level, logistics and sports science are no longer separate departments.
The travel plan is part of the performance plan.
