They don't make rugby players the way they used to, huh?
Newport Dragons head coach Bernard Jackman joined OTB's Sunday Paper Review alongside Kieran Cunningham and host Joe Molloy, and the former Leinster man said that modern players aren't as interested in watching the game in their off-time when compared to his playing days.
"If you're not playing on the Six Nations weekend we'd all watch the rugby. I think our generation would have all the rugby. We'd come in Monday morning and it'd be 'did you see what Stuart Hogg did in Murray field?' or 'did you see what Vincent Clerc did in France".
"A lot of this generation don't watch rugby, they don't watch rugby. Some of the kids we have don't have a TV in their house. They don't have a TV, they don't have Sky or BT, they get everything in highlights on their phone".
To counteract this Jackman said that he and his staff have had to come up with new ways of getting players to study game footage during their preparation.
"We've had to change how we try to educate them. We give them a lot of mini-tasks, research shows that the best number to work in a group in four, so we break them into fours and we give them little tactical challenges where they've got to go and watch some footage and a four and report back, and report back to the group, and there's a reward for the best group".
"We send a lot of our video content on WhatsApp because that's basically where they get their information".
While this may not come as a surprise to anyone who's looked at today's youth interacting with each other, Jackman said that modern rugby players are also fixated on their phones and feels that they're missing out on a chance to bond with teammates they way an older generation would have.
"We have a common area and I walk to my office through the corridor where it is and you see seven or eight players sitting down but they're not engaging, everyone is on their phone. There's a real opportunity there to understand a little bit more about each other and build a relationship".
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