In soccer the medical team have the authority, in Rugby it’s the fitness team; they dictate training volume and durations in all the training.
When Steve Bruce was at Wigan he actually banned the players from the gym because he thought they would get injured. So I am interested in what he did when he got to Sunderland as I know they lifted in some manner there (Bruce actually played alongside Sunderland’s S&C coach at Man Utd, who coincidentally is the son of the Man Utd S&C coach). Would Bruce change his mind in these circumstances?
Implementing things like this take a long time, and the pro’s are a lost cause. The mindset has to be created at the academy level. Old dog, new tricks and all that.