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Albert van den Berg has always been a perfectionist.
“There’s a saying ‘do it until you get it right’ but I disagree,” he told WalesOnline. “The saying should be ‘do it until you don’t get it wrong anymore’.”
This is the mindset the South African Rugby World Cup winner will try to instil at the Scarlets where he will replace Ben Franks as forwards coach.
READ MORE: Cardiff set for shake-up with senior coaches wanted in Japan and England and set to follow Dai Young through exit door
Van den Berg is part of a backroom reshuffle by head coach Dwayne Peel with the South African joining former Ireland star Jared Payne as an assistant coach at Parc y Scarlets.
The 49-year-old will arrive in Llanelli next Wednesday from South African franchise the Lions where he forged a reputation as one of the most innovative coaches in the Rainbow Nation.
It has been all doom and gloom in Welsh rugby of late owing to significant budget and wage cuts at all four regions, but the Scarlets have invested heavily in their coaching team in a bid to maximise the talent they have in their ranks.
“I wanted to seize this opportunity to grow as a coach,” said van den Berg.
“I’ve been in the South African system for a long time, while I’ve also coached in Japan for a few years.
“For me personally the opportunity to go over there to coach Scarlets, and share some ideas with Dwayne Peel, Gareth Williams and Jared Payne will be great. The Scarlets have always played an attractive and attacking brand of rugby.
“If you look at Franco Smith who is with Glasgow, the way they want to play they sometimes run from their own 22, and Scarlets are a similar team.
“As a player I was an athletic lock. I wasn’t one of the big ball carriers who was big into mauls and scrums.
“I liked it when the game opened up and it turned into a sevens-style of rugby.
“That’s one of the things that Scarlets do offer is that brand of rugby that I can buy into, and share ideas with the guys.
“I want to try to help them build on that.”
The Scarlets’ attacking ability has never been questioned, indeed they are among the most dangerous sides in Europe when the game breaks up, but they don’t fare as well in a tighter contest.
If one was to analyse the make-up of their forwards you’d have a plethora of talented athletes with high skill-sets such as former All Black Vaea Fifita and Sam Lousi but perhaps not enough ball-carrying grunt.
But there’s more than one way to skin a cat, and van den Berg is confident he can help the Scarlets pack get the better of heavier opposition.
“We might not have the heaviest pack, but if there’s clarity in what you have to do then you can get good execution from that,” he said.
“If there are good systems in place it’s easier to do fault findings. The challenge for us is to make sure we can actually manipulate opposition packs because we can’t take on bigger packs head on.
“We have to identify weaknesses and opportunities to attack them whether that be plays around the front or the back of the lineout, and looking at manipulating the numbers in the lineouts.
“When you look at the defensive side of things we have to make sure we understand what the opposition is bringing, and what tactics we are going to use to stop them.
“If they are going to come with a mauling game then we have to limit the amount of penalties we concede so that we don’t give them opportunities to actually maul us.
“If they do get into a situation where they are going to maul us I need to make sure that every player understands his role, where to go, what to do, and come up with a few ideas of how to stop their maul.”
So, what is van den Berg’s point of difference as a coach?
“For me the biggest thing is that I empower players to make decisions for themselves,” he said.
“I believe we must not put players into a position where they just do what the coach tells them. We need to create different scenarios in training for them, and expose them to different situations.
“I’m very much a coach with an open door policy. I invite the players to come up with their own ideas, we share our different ideas, and we look at different scenarios which might come up in games.
“You also want to make the players feel as if they are invested in this Scarlets team. As a coach it’s up to me to offer them guidance and ask questions, like why do you think you want to do this, and let them give the answers themselves rather than us telling them what it is.
“It’s also important to be honest with players. As a player you know when a coach is trying to sugarcoat something for you. If you are honest with players about where they stand in the rankings, and their positional play, then they’ll know what to work on.
“If they can see you are honest with them, and spend time working with them on their own personal game, then they know you are investing in them as a player.”
Due to the financial cuts in Welsh rugby next season the Welsh regions will have to put even more faith in home-grown talent with the money not being available to sign as many top-class overseas players.
Van den Berg is relishing the opportunity to work with some of Welsh rugby’s brightest prospects and is particularly keen to help young second-rows Morgan Jones and Jac Price reach their potential.
“Vaea Fifita has been their standout player along with Sam Lousi,” he said. “The exciting part for me being a former lock is working with the young Welsh second-rows Jac Price and Morgan Jones.
“They are young guys in the system who I am going to try to improve and help them fulfil their potential over the next couple of seasons.
“I’m also looking forward to spending some time with Ken Owens as there’s always a link between the hookers and the locks. Just to get some ideas about what they are doing and how they see the game.
“It’s a priority of mine to ensure we get really good execution from our lineouts. I do believe a lineout is only complete once the ball is in the first receivers hands, which in most cases, is the number 10.
“From the throw, to the lift, to the jump, to the delivery, to the 10 a lot of time when you beat teams getting the gain-line all those things working in a sequence is crucial.
“I’ve had a few Zoom calls with Dwayne and he’s trying to finalise his squad so we don’t have the final squad yet.
“I’ll be arriving in Wales next Wednesday and I’ll have a good look at the players then.”
As a player van den Berg won 51 caps for South Africa as a second-row which included lifting the 2007 World Cup in France.
His ability as a coach has been shaped by some of the game’s greatest rugby thinkers including legendary Springboks coach Nick Mallett.
“If I look back at my playing career Nick Mallett was a big influence, and even John Plumtree,” he said.
“They both installed discipline into you as a player and it’s a professional sport now which is a full-time job. If you aren’t serious about it and you don’t take it seriously you are going to find yourself cut adrift.
“The one thing I got from those guys was use every opportunity to make it the best. Every training that you go to you need to use it to be better than the day before.
“It’s the right way of doing it because in this game the margin or error is so small. If you you get one of two opportunities to score then you have to take them.
“One of the biggest things I got from them was just discipline, waking up, and making sure you give 100% in everything you do to be successful, and I’ll bring that attitude to the Scarlets.”
Times may be tough in west Wales but if the Scarlets forwards buy into van den Berg’s philosophy they might yet shock a few people.
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