National rugby coach Eddie Jones has unveiled an initiative formalising a coordinated strength and conditioning program between the Australian and Super 12 levels which he believes will enable Australia to catch up to other leading nations in that area.

Jones announced a 42-man squad for this year, but the significance went beyond the naming of a combination of established and up-and-coming players.

Formal establishment of a yearly strength and conditioning program will allow Jones to monitor the performance of his players at both state and national levels.

"The thing that held back our physical development is having players on two separate programs and what this initiative allows us to do is the top 40 players will be on one program done in consultation between the Wallabies staff and the Super 12 staff, so it's only going to maximise the physical development of each player," Jones said.

"We've had it in place probably 60 to 70 per cent over the last 12 months and now we've just been able to formalise it completely so that there's regular meetings between our strength and conditioning co-ordinator Jason Weber and the provincial strength and conditioning co-ordinators and similarly between the Super 12 head coaches and myself to ensure the players are on coherent programs.

"It's very much consultation, it's not one person having control over the others. All we are trying to do is maximise the ability of the players to develop physically.

"We have been trailing the other countries. England have got their squad on a centralised strength and conditioning program and all the staff in New Zealand are employed by the New Zealand rugby union and similarly in South Africa.

"Ireland and Scotland have got it in place and it's recognised as the way to ensure that a player can develop physically, so all we are doing now is catching up to where a few of the other top countries have been."

Jones planned to visit each of the Australian Super 12 teams over the next two to three weeks to outline his plans for each player.

However, Jones stressed he had no intention of badgering any coaches into switching players into a different position to suit his own wishes.

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