Too many players are built like Tarzan, but have Jane's skill set

FRENCH NOTES:Success comes from actions and behaviour and the players at Narbonne are about to learn this the hard way

THE WORD ‘professional’ is all too frequently tossed around when referring to modern rugby. But it is fundamentally wrong to link the word ‘professional’ to ‘money’. The underlying implication is that when you are paid you are professional.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Professionalism is related to your actions and behaviours, not your payment.

Imagine a doctor volunteering for charity work in Africa. He remains a professional by his actions as a doctor, even though he may not be paid for those actions. A doctor is professional through the behaviours and standards practised that are never compromised by a lack of money.

Actions define you as being a professional or not. The New Zealand national rugby team have been professional for many decades yet they have only been paid since 1996.

Players in French rugby have been paid for many years. In the first half of the 20th century France were suspended from the then Five Nations for payment of players.

Last year, Felipe Contepomi told me that in his opinion the majority of Top 14 players had only recently began to act in a professional manner.

I have commenced establishing a standard of professional behaviour for the players of Racing Club Narbonne. This process is not new to me. This is what I have had to do at every club I have coached. Unfortunately for me, all my clubs have been in some form of crisis as I arrive. I am brought in to manage the crisis and move the clubs towards success.

That seems to be what I am known for.

From the Waratahs, Leinster, Scotland and Ulster, the task that fell to me was to establish systems for on field and off field performance and introduce professional behaviours to the teams’ every day actions.

It has not been easy, but that is the gig.

It would be nice to get a team that had already established a professional culture, but that has been my lot and I am not complaining. To see where Leinster and Ulster are today compared to the day I arrived at those clubs gives me great satisfaction. Their behaviours have moved from unprofessional to professional.

What is a behaviour? A behaviour is an observable action.

Brian O’Driscoll is the hardest working professional I have coached. I would observe his actions at practice, team meetings, the gym and the video room. He is meticulous and demanded the best from all those around him, including me. Can you imagine a surgeon in a major operation not demanding the best from his medical team?

Setting standards and demanding those standards of others is the first step towards raising a team’s professional standards. Brian’s observable actions establish him as a great professional, not his pay packet.

Some modern players feel a contract for payment and a tracksuit make you pro. They have a lot to learn. They need a size 10 boot in the arse. Right now I have a sore foot from this situation in Narbonne.

Another incorrect concept is that professional players are paid to play.

You play for the same reason you did as a boy. You love it. It is in your blood. You have no choice but to play.

I describe this passion to play as the warrior instinct. In the past, a warrior knew they would have to fight to the death on the battlefield. It takes a special type of individual to embrace this as their main purpose in life.

Rugby is a warrior sport and the best players are just that, warriors. They want to win because they are massive competitors. Can you imagine Paul O’Connell or Ronan O’Gara thinking about money during a match?

The thought is insulting to both of these fine pros. Professional players are paid to prepare to play.

Standing in the gym doing curls to create biceps that look good in a T-shirt at Krystle is not preparing in a professional manner. That’s being a body builder; too many young players are built like Tarzan, but have Jane’s skill set. Jane looked good, but was pretty helpless when the jungle got hairy. Lifting weights is easy. Improving skills takes hard work.

There are two main starting points for professionalism in rugby – skills and diet. Players don’t just dine, they must refuel. To move a French rugby team from a breakfast of warm bread with lots of butter dipped in hot chocolate to eggs, chicken, vegetables and fruit is both culturally and behaviourally challenging.

If professional procedures are followed and science is respected, peak performances can be attained.

The greatest misconception regarding French rugby is the misguided belief that genetically they are skilful. False. Skills are improved when they are performed correctly and repeated. Repetition is the mother of all learning. Our muscles remember either good skills or bad skills. Practice does not make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect. Toulouse play magnificent rugby because they are trained to play in specific manner, not because they are French.

Generation Y have spent too much of their youth in front of Xboxes and on Twitter or Facebook. The innate skills learnt in playing touch rugby on the green are departing the game. Skill levels are plummeting. This phenomenon is being observed and reported by coaches in all sports in all western democracies.

If we do not learn skills at an early age we will not be skilful. Coaches the world over are having to teach basic catching, passing and kicking skills that were innate in all players 15 years ago. France is not immune to this world wide concern.

Nothing angers me more than the statement: “We can’t do that, we are . . . French, Irish, Scottish, Australian”. I have heard it time and time again in every team across four countries. Players who say this are really saying: ‘I am not prepared to pay the price for winning’.

They are lying. Worse than that it is cowardly. To me, it is weakness personified. I can not abide weakness in myself or in others.

I always ask one question back – who owns the problem? The individual player. His professional standards are the problem. Change or depart. Improve or be removed.

The problem is not French or Irish. The problem is behavioural. It is owned by every individual in the team. It is owned by the team itself.

Professional standards are set by the leaders starting with the head coach.

To me, success is a choice. It’s as simple and as clean as that. Being French or Irish has nothing to do with it. Success is not easy. If it was easy everyone would do it. Once you make the commitment to professional standards you then have to work like you have never worked before. As I have said many times before, Brian O’Driscoll and David Campese are the two best players I have coached and the two hardest workers I have coached.

Their professionalism set the standard for their team and their country.

Success in sport is not determined by a country’s culture. It is determined by the behaviours of the athletes. Narbonne are just starting to learn this.

They are in for a shock at breakfast next week.