Interview with Jonathan Bell - Academy Elite Player Development Officer

I am basically in charge of bringing through indigenous, young talent through from the ages of sixteen to nineteen which involves talent identification and development of those players through to when they leave school. The top players are then recommended for Academy positions and ultimately then moving on into the professional game. My job is important in the sense that if there are not home grown players playing for Ulster at Ravenhill then there’s something not right so I am charged, along with Niall Malone, Chris Shields (who looks after strength and conditioning) and our boss Gary Longwell with making sure there are a steady stream of players coming through to play for Ulster.

I’m trying to make sure coming out at the top end of the Academy system you have a better player, a more ready player for the professional game. I’m in charge of the skills end of it, working with clubs and schools to try and improve the skills levels of the players and improve the quality of what’s happening week in and week out at schools level. If we can get it right at underage level then obviously that makes our job a lot easier because that’s where they’re doing their meat and drink, it’s at schools and clubs that they are playing week in and week out. We work with them to try and make sure that player is getting the best opportunity he can to become the best player he can. That’s essentially what the job is.

How do you feel the Academy is progressing in the time you have been working within the Academy?

It’s developing as professional rugby is progressing here, we have a good number of young players out on the pitch who have come through the Academy system and we have to make sure that we continue to bring young talent come through.

How do you feel the British and Irish Cup has benefited the Academy players, with many featuring heavily in the competition so far?

The best players improve when they’re playing with better players at a higher level, so if we can get our best young players continually training with the senior side and playing with better players, fully contracted professional players, then they are going to adopt the practices and the intensity that is needed to play at the top level. We’re continually trying to make that competitive environment better.

The British and Irish Cup is a more consistent playing vehicle for young guys to really get to that level they really need to be at, it’s an area where they are playing against top class players, they’re exposed to better volume of rugby and they learn from that. Several of the players have done very well having been exposed at that level and they have a taste for it and that sometimes breeds a bit more hunger for it.

Munster away is a tough fixture for us but the Ravens are a good side, they’re a driven group of players and I think they’ll go down and give a very good account of themselves and it’ll be exciting to see how that turns out because it’s all to play for. Munster is probably the favourites with the home draw but it’ll be interesting to see how it finishes up.

How do you feel training at Newforge with the Ulster Senior Players has benefited the Academy players?

I think the link between the Academy and the senior team has become closer, I think Brian’s done a great job in bringing that a lot closer together. Ultimately players need to see a carrot and they need to be able to see what they want to get, where they want to get to and where they’re benchmarking at the moment.

So if they’re training with the likes of Ian Humphreys, Paddy Wallace and BJ Botha then they can see “Wait I’m not as good in this area”, or “I need to work on this” or "I’m actually not too far away on this”. It actually helps the senior professionals as well, it gives them a sharp shot and tells them: “Wait this guy isn’t that far away from me on this”, so I think it’s great. The senior coaches know what’s coming through the Academy system, they can see that at first hand.

Ultimately you want to expose the best players to the highest possible level of competition and that’s how you get better, by bringing new players into a new system where they are continually being pushed and that’s been a huge development. Gary has worked extremely hard to make sure the Academy is striving to be better and better, I think we all are and it’s great in that respect.

Do you feel the Academy has to cover more aspects as the professional game grows, with media training, mental training and nutrition training now as standard a part of an Academy player’s schedule as speed and skills training?

The fundamental thing for the academy is we want players educated; we want to make sure they can do their degrees because it takes discipline to become a professional rugby player and the same goes for studying, so if they’re not disciplined in that area then invariably they won’t be as disciplined in the rugby side of things.

It’s a tough environment to be in, and you’re judged on the performances on the pitch and sometimes people forget the sacrifices you’ve made to get there, but that’s the nature of the beast. We try to support all our young players right from the time we first meet them, we’re trying to give them these support structures to avail of, and some players take advantage of them more than others but we would advise all your players to organise and take advantage of all the opportunities available to them.

They need to be driven, we cannot force them to do something they don’t want to, that’s the attitude that invariably you can’t buy, it’s either in you or it’s not. You find, well in my experience, in professional sport that there are kids who are mentally strong, who will do it over other kids who are probably more skilled than them. The guys who want it more generally go through.

What are your hopes for the Ulster Rugby Academy moving forward in the future?

I think the Academy has to adopt best practice, we have to be the standard bearer, and we want to be the best Academy around. If we can control what we can control, and be the best at what we can then we’re doing a good job. If we’re not maximising what we have then we’re selling ourselves short.

I think one cap doesn’t fit all, we’ve got to find the best fit for Ulster within the structures that are in place and we’ve got to strive to be the best at that. We don’t have as big a playing base as other places, we have a lot of talent within what is a small playing base so we’ve got to make sure we maximise that talent, we don’t miss any talent and that we try to increase our playing base. We’ve got to think outside the box with regards to how we produce young players and how we identify young players and basically don’t stand still.