You’ve always had people around like that. What I would say is that you get better as you get older. Experience plays a part and in the old days you got fitter and stronger as you got older. These days you look at the lads and they get that exposure to the fitness training, the weight training, analysis and where they can improve their technique all from a younger age.

Generally they are getting younger as a whole, but there have always been the exceptions to the rule in the past as well.

When I was starting out it was slightly different, mainly because I started in the back row. I didn’t move into the front row until I was 25. But at Leicester the likes of Rowntree, Richard Cockerill and Darren Garforth had people like Peter Wheeler who had been around a lot, knew the game and could pass on their knowledge.

It is always similar in every position where there are people who you look up to and learn from. Here at Northampton I have a lot of interest in scrums and spend a lot of time trying to improve them. We don’t over-complicate it, but the mindset is always about the scrum and what getting it right means for the team and how important it is.

We’ve got some good lads here who are working hard and learning quickly. I haven’t been surprised by their development, because we noticed the potential in players like Alex Waller from the moment we saw them, how he’s built, his physique, how he can get around the pitch, his strength and his attitude.

He works hard, and enjoys working hard. He wants to learn and if he can keep up his attitude where he wants to compete to get his place in the team and to win in the first team then he’ll do even better in the future.

All of the props and hookers we have here are the same. They all want to start in a first team game and push each other all the time. Alex has come through the Academy system, but we’ve seen the likes of Tom Mercey, Brian Mujati, Brett Sharman and Paul Doran Jones all come in from other clubs and work hard because they want to improve as well.

One thing that definitely helps in the development of a young front rower is the amount of time that they get at the club before they sign a professional contract.

We’ve got an Academy set-up now that we have been very keen to get properly established. Mark Hopley is really valuable in there. He’s keen, and just as importantly has played in the first team set-up and realises how valuable the scrum is, as well as the maul, lineout and contact area.

He’s passing on the messages to the young lads that we pass on to the first team. We are getting more contact time with the young lads, and we’re keen to have them here through the pre-season training. This summer we had a lot of Under-18 players in with us full-time, both in the gym and in our fitness games on the pitches, which are rugby-related. They can only learn from that.

Over the last 10 years it has become more and more vital to keep the youngsters focused on improving their set piece. For some reason, and I noticed this as a player and when I started coaching, the emphasis went from contact skills – i.e. what you do in the ruck or the maul – to being about massive collisions in the tackle and players who can run with the ball and pass it in fancy ways.

I suppose that comes with what you see on the television, watching rugby from all over the world where they play in different conditions. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but for a prop or a hooker, their primary role is still to scrum and get the lineout right. That’s what we’re trying to get our guys thinking about from an early age.

I do think it is essential that they have that ability in the loose, but it’s not their number one concern. That is something that we have seen with the likes of Soane Tonga’uiha and Dylan Hartley. They’re both ball carriers, and really good at it. They get around the pitch, work hard, carry the ball, offload, they can do anything. But if you talk to them now when we go into a match, their first thought is with the scrum and how we’re going to dominate the opposition.

But it is brilliant when you have front rowers who can do the bread and butter stuff and still get around the pitch and cause problems when they’re running the ball. That’s ideal and what we look for and try to develop.

One thing that will be interesting in the future is how long the younger guys can keep playing in the top flight or for their country. They’re playing rugby from an earlier age, and I don’t know how long you can go on playing rugby at that intensity. You haven’t got to be as aerobically fit as a front row player as you do in the back row, I suppose, but as long as you’ve got your strength and experience you can get by as a front row player. It’s not ideal, and maybe it’s not playing at Premiership or international standard, but in the past you’ve seen front rowers last longer than in other positions, and I don’t really see that changing.