England Rugby has penned a new four year partnership with Optimum Nutrition, which will see them become the rugby team’s official performance nutrition and official nutrition education partner.
As part of the new deal, Optimum Nutrition will supply its Inform-Sport tested product range to the England senior men’s and women’s XVs and sevens squads, and in return, will receive match-day branding rights for Twickenham starting with the England v Italy fixture on 9 March.
The partnership will bring the two together to create an educational programme – “the good nutrition for performance programme” – which will be community-focused, aimed at teaching adult and age-group rugby players, coaches and parents.
The initiative is due to be rolled out via a content series which will be published across a digital hub. Included in the programme will be nutrition plans and advice, game preparation and recovery tips, recipe ideas and tool kits for coaches, as well as information on the role of supplements.
“We are delighted to be partnering with Optimum Nutrition and creating an engaging nutrition education hub with them that provides practical nutritional advice to rugby players, coaches and parents,” said Dr Simon Kemp, RFU Medical Services Director.
“This advice will be consistent with England Rugby’s ‘food first’ policy, but recognises that there are circumstances where the use of selected supplements is appropriate and will aid recovery, reduce injury risk and optimise the effects of training.”
Optimum Nutrition are set to produce products which are specifically tailored to community rugby players, the first of which will be a rugby focused variant of “Gold Standard 100% Whey Protein” which will aid muscle recovery.
“It’s great to announce this new partnership with Optimum Nutrition, a company that has been helping performance-focused athletes achieve their goals for over 30 years,” added Simon Massie-Taylor, RFU Chief Commercial Officer.
“Not only will our elite teams have access to the products, but it’s particularly important to be providing this new education programme to our grassroots players and coaches to enable them to get the best nutritional advice from the experts at England Rugby and Optimum Nutrition.”
