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Bristol hooker Harry Thacker advises young players not to 'smash the gym at 14'
By Online Editors
Bristol Bears hooker Harry Thacker has spoken out against an alarming trend of young players chasing size in order to make the grade in an interview with the Mail on Sunday newspaper.
Thacker was told at his former club Leicester that he was too small to make it as a front rower in the professional game.
"A fair few coaches there told me I was too small. I never really felt they trusted me to do a job."
He said the Leicester Tigers culture was based on using a big pack to run over the opposition, which didn't fit his game.
"I felt like I was always fighting a losing battle at Leicester."
Thacker has thrived at Bristol in the Premiership under Pat Lam, scoring six tries in his last seven outings this season.
"I get a lot of messages from kids at 14, 15, 16 on Instagram saying: "I'm being told that I need to put as much weight on as possible; what did you do"?', he said
"I've sat down with a few boys going through the system. I'm a strong believer that, if you're good enough, you should be there. The weight will come. I don't think guys at 14 should be smashing the gym.
"There's a lot of pressure for youngsters to be bigger, stronger, faster,' he said.
'There's probably more focus on that than their core skills. Passing, tackling, stuff like that.
"There is a lot of pressure and I think it's directed at the wrong things. When you're 18, 19, 20 is when your major growth should occur. Not at 16."
Thacker admitted his own approach was similar when he was growing up, but it came at a cost of playing his own way.
"I put on as much weight as I could put on — to the point I wasn't as able to play the game I wanted to play."
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Latest Comments
We beat Wales. Oh wow.
Go to commentsAs has been the way all year, and for all England's play I can remember. I missed a lot of the better years under Eddie though.
Lets have a look at the LQB for the last few games... 41% under 3 sec compared to 56% last week, 47% in the game you felt England best in against NZ, and 56 against Ireland.
That was my impression as well. Dunno if that is a lack of good counterattack ball from the D, forward dominance (Post Contact Meters stats reversed yesterday compared to that fast Ireland game), or some Borthwick scheme, but I think that has been highlighted as Englands best point of difference this year with their attack, more particularly how they target using it in certain areas. So depending on how you look at it, not necessarily the individual players.
You seem to be falling into the same trap as NZs supporters when it comes to Damien McKenzie. That play you highlight Slade in wasn't one of those LQB situations from memory, that was all on the brilliance of Smith. Sure, Slade did his job in that situation, but Smith far exceeded his (though I understand it was a move Sleightholme was calling for). But yeah, it's not always going to be on a platter from your 10 and NZ have been missing that Slade line, in your example, more often than not too. When you go back to Furbank and Feyi-Waboso returns you'll have that threat again. Just need to generate that ball, wait for some of these next Gen forwards to come through etc, the props and injured 6 coming back to the bench. I don't think you can put Earl back to 7, unless he spends the next two years speeding up (which might be good for him because he's getting beat by speed like he's not used to not having his own speed to react anymore).
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