At 26, Mark Hopley holds the honour of being the youngest Aviva Premiership academy coach in the country, although it is probably fair to say that he would rather be back in pre-season training on the playing side.
The former Northampton Saints flanker retired from playing at the end of last season, taking over from Grant Seeley as forwards coach in the club’s youth department.
Unlike many of his team-mates, Hopley could not wait to get stuck into training when July rolled around every year. However, he has been impressed by the way the latest intake at the academy have coped.
“I’m quite strange because as a player, I used to enjoy pre-season and getting flogged,” he said, adding: “It is completely different for me, but I’m getting stuck into it.
“I think I’m slightly weird in saying that, but they’ve been good so far. They’ve had the shock to the system, they’re getting used to it and they’re training like professionals which is brilliant.
"The guys are with the conditioners quite a lot, so I’m looking forward to getting more contact time with them as we push on to the start of the season and seeing what these young lads can do.
“We’ve got an exciting bunch of lads and we want to see how far they can go.”
Hopley knows himself what it is like to go from playing club and schoolboy rugby to a professional environment, having been one of the original RFU Academy members.
He said: “They’ve been selected on merit and given a contract because they are good players. What we need to do now is make sure they keep developing their skills and develop.
“For the lads coming from school to professional training, they are doing three hard sessions a day, five days a week, if not six. Before that, they were probably doing once or twice a day at the most.
“It’s worlds apart from what they’re used to but so far their attitude has been fantastic. They’ve got their heads down and I think they’re earning a lot of respect from the senior squad.”
Earlier this week, the Saints announced a playing partnership with Championship side Birmingham & Solihull which will see several of Northampton’s youngsters dual registered with the team.
Having played in the competition with the Saints when it was still National Division One, Hopley knows how tough it can be for a forward and believes it will be great for those that get the chance to play.
“It’s important that we have a dual registered club and somewhere the lads are going to go and get some playing time,” he said.
“It would be all well and good us sending them elsewhere, but it’s not going to do them any good just being a squad player and sitting on the bench. It’s not as fast, but in terms of forward play it’s right up there.
"Scrummaging is hard, you’ve got to be on your game in the Championship because there’s a lot of experienced front row forwards out there, which is good.”