I was fortunate enough to have Gilly as a Strength and Conditioning coach for the majority of my All Black career. Through this time I quickly learned he was world-class. His knowledge of High Performance and what it took to get his athletes trained to perform at the highest level for many years was something I admired.

In 2014 after playing professional rugby for 13 years there was evidence it was taking its toll on my body. I reached out to Gilly to rebuild my body during a 6-month sabbatical. I came back stronger and 2015 was my best year yet and I went on to achieve a lot more in my career finally finishing years later. I put a lot of this success down to the knowledge Gilly shared with me to maintain my body to be able to perform at the highest level week in week out.

He also understands the balance required for the individual athlete when it comes to training. Knowing when to push his athletes hard or when it’s time to make the session fun and enjoyable with humour or even when he taps you on the shoulder and tells you to sit the session out to take some more time on your recovery. An art that not all S&C trainers have.

I’ve had the privilege of working with Gilly for the last 10 years and he is without doubt the best trainer I have worked with.

Apart from being an all round top man, his strengths as a strength & conditioning trainer are many. I’ve always admired the way he has an understanding of the athlete and because of this he can create training programmes that are realistic to complete while still knowing how to challenge you to get better and work harder in certain areas.

He has taught me that training, regardless of what you are targeting is about doing the basics really well, training quality with consistency and looking after your body. He has helped me develop good habits before, during and post training and ultimately taught me to love training and push my body to get better.

Gilly has changed my body, I went from being a skinny weak tall kid into a strong explosive athlete. The only way I have been able to play at the highest level for over 13 years, is from the changes my body has gone under.

I started playing for the All Blacks at 106kgs I’m 122kgs now and leaner than I was at 106kgs.

Gilly has the ability to get the best out of every session, he has the personality to get you to give that last maximal effort which allows the greatest growth. Whether this is a gym session, running block, or a stretch session.

Knowing when to push and when to take reps and sets out is the difference between Gilly and the rest!

Love his passion and his work ethic towards our physical & recovery aspect of training. Gilly has a great way of keeping things simple and explaining it but also trying to find ways to make us better athletes.

As a front rower, having some good healthy weight behind you always helps , especially when packing down for the scrum. Just as important is also having the ability to move around the park and nail your core roles well.

Gilly helped me find the balance of being at a good playing weight while being mobile.

A quick coffee session with Gillies helped me realize my goal of donning the glorious black jersey at the age of 29. I became one of the oldest players to debut for the All Blacks and I've come to realize that by being equipped with the right knowledge and having the right motivation to reach your goals, anything is possible no matter the shape or size, age or gender.

I’ve had the pleasure of Gilly sussing my training for the last few years. He’s tailored my program to my refereeing, and ensured that I’m match fit for both female and male rugby games. As a female it was hugely important that I don’t look out of place on a field full of men, so Gilly has made sure with our training that I can not only keep up but maintain my speed and endurance throughout the game which has allowed me to make better decisions in-game.

I’ve also made improvements in the fitness testing required, all the while he has listened to what I like doing, what I need and what’s available to me and incorporated this into my plans.

I’ve known Gilly for the best part of my adult life, from lecturing me at Wintec in 2004 to working with him throughout my entire All Blacks career. The great thing about Gilly as a trainer is that he genuinely cares about everyone he works with. It isn’t just about the numbers for Gilly, he can connect and push the most experienced player while at the same time build trust and motivate the rookies who came into the team.

I personally benefitted from Gilly across my career, he was able to push me to places physically where I wouldn’t have imagined I could ever reach. I know this as every year in my career I improved physically, even as I was in my mid-30s. He did this through utilizing my strengths and working on my weaknesses to develop greater aerobic capacity and building strength in unique ways adapted to my body and injuries.

Gilly or Nic Gill as many know him by was my physical conditioning trainer for around 10 years whilst playing for the All Blacks.

The one thing that sticks out for me when people ask about Gilly is his ability to listen and get a real understanding of how your body works and reacts and will adapt to any situation thrown at him.

The detail that goes into his training specifics and position specifics is world-class.

An example of this was when I had bad patella tendinitis which limited my ability to squat and build size and muscle around my quads. But we adapted and found other ways I could train without overloading the tendon so I was able to perform at peak performance.

Gilly is a World-class trainer but an even better man got nothing but love for Gilly and by far my greatest trainer.

I had the pleasure of working with Nic for twelve years through my Junior and Senior ALL BLACKS career . Being lucky enough to work with Nic for that amount of time allowed us to form a great professional relationship but also an awesome friendship. I learned and developed so many skills working with Nic, but the most important for me is that he helped me become the best that I could be through constant work on knowing what will work for me. From weekly training planning discussions to making sure that each session is beneficial for me.

I would not have been able to achieve the heights that I reached if it wasn’t for the continuous work and friendship I had with Nic. Working with a trainer and working hard is one thing but having a great connection and that close work/friendship/respect really made a difference to my approach to everything. We worked really hard and having that close link really helped our process.

Truly grateful for everything thing that Nic did for me.

I was lucky enough to work with Gilly for eight years throughout the second half of my rugby career.

I really enjoyed the way he listened to each player in order to understand their needs and then design training programs to suit. This showed up in the years I was working under Gilly, we had one of the best physically conditioned teams in the world. It was never a one size fits all approach to achieving this.

Towards the end of my professional career, I had the inevitable injuries and wear and tear to deal with. Gilly’s ability to be innovative and flexible helped minimize these affects, but also enabled me to still make the gains I needed in a strength and fitness sense. This was a huge reason I was able to maintain my level of performance right to my last game.

The most important feeling I had working with Gilly was I always trusted the advice and training plans he put together for me. Whether it was to push a little harder or to take more time for recovery, he always got this spot on. He had a great feel for the big picture and shaped his advice to suit. It meant every time I took the field I felt confident I’d done everything to be in the best shape possible to perform.

I was lucky to work under Gilly for so long who I consider one of the best!