Hey Simon and thanks for the letter,it is nice to think outside the box every now and again and what we do in rugby would have a positive effect on your power development on the bike, many of th estrongman techniques are real good for strenght and strength endurance, they also build tremndous grip strength which I would think would be a distinct advantage in your sport as well, with your plyometrics it is best to build a base of double leg (jumps) before moving onto more specific single leg (hops), so some of the following would be a good start:
Knees to feet jumps
– use of arms
– hands on hips
– prisoner style hands behind neck
– holding dumbbells
– jumping up onto a mat
Double leg jumps over smal hurdles
Tuck Jumps
Jumps Squats
Jumps up onto a box
With all of these we try and minimise the time on the ground to optimise the rate of force development (RFD), read my article on jump progressions on this web site for more details.
As for strongman, the Farmer’s Walk is outstanding, simply squat down and pick up 2 heavy DB’s and go for a walk with them, either for maximum distance or for time, also the tyre flip is another all over strongman exercise that is a great movement, I have an articel on Strongman Training for Sport on this web site as well.
You can contrast the strongman with the plyometrics with good effect, My artilce More Power to You looks at some of these concepts as well, all the best, ashley