The underlying principle behind this division of the season into training phases is that the weekly game itself, no matter how intense, is insufficient to maintain adequate levels of fitness. This is not to say that playing the game isn't the best way of advancing your level of preparation it is. The principle of specificity (Chapter 2) dictates this. But the intensity of such a stimulus, along with the consequences of the many high speed body-on-body and body-on-turf collisions which result from it, prohibits match-play more frequently than once a week. In fact, there is a growing argument that the game has become so intense that even an overage seven-day break is no longer enough.