White wary of rugby’s dependency on GPS

RUGBY is in danger of becoming a robotic game of numbers dominated by science “boffins”, according to former Wales and Lions fitness guru Craig White.

Increasingly top end teams are using live GPS data to determine when replacements should be made and White, right, is wary that the art of coaching could be damaged by this lap top culture.

White, 44, conditioner for the 2005 and 2009 British and Irish Lions, told The Rugby Paper: “There is so much data being collected that rugby, in some areas, is in danger of being completely driven by science which would be a crying shame.

“A lot of Premiership clubs now have sports scientists and some have two but, in my opinion, they need be careful.

“If you are going to employ someone to do that kind of work, for me they also need to have an appreciation of the coaching process.

“Instead of being sports scientists, they should be sports science-educated coaches. You’ve got young boffins who have no idea how to relate to people like (Leicester director of rugby) Richard Cockerill, and all you are creating then is frustration because Cockers is thinking I should listen to these numbers when inside he is feeling something different. “We can’t forget the importance of the art of coaching. For me, instead of just going full steam ahead in investing more and more in science and the technological side of the game, I still don’t think there is enough money and emphasis and accountability placed on coach education.”

White, who is currently assisting Georgia as a high performance consultant, continued: “If you look at individual sports such as tennis and athletics, in my opinion they tend to be a lot more rounded and have a lot more skill and intelligence than some of the coaches in rugby.

“In the AFL, I’m led to believe from some of my colleagues that the coach education process for all the top coaches is much more rigorous than it is for UK rugby coaches.”