BIG brother is watching the Dragons as they attempt to up the intensity at their Ystrad Mynach headquarters, writes Chris Kirwan.

Head coach Bernard Jackman made no secret of his desire to push the Rodney Parade region out of their comfort zone when he took the helm in the summer.

With two wins from seven, that hasn’t translated in the Guinness PRO14 table yet but the data suggests that the Dragons are starting to be more comfortable when the going gets tough.

Against the Ospreys last weekend the ball-in-play time was 48 minutes – similar to Test standard – while flanker Aaron Wainwright covered 5km in the first half despite coming on after 11 minutes.

The Dragons use GPS heavily in training with the aim of hitting targets for metres per minute – 70 for backs and 60 to 65 for forwards.

“If you look at our GPS data we are training and playing at a higher intensity than we have ever before,” said head of strength and conditioning Ryan Harris.

“Guys are getting more comfortable with that and the mental stresses. That is the challenge, to keep on pushing in training so that we can replicate that on matchday.

“We monitor every rugby session for intensity, duration and speed through GPS. We view that with the coaches on a regular basis and we are trying to attain targets through our positive way of playing week in, week out.

“There are only positive noises coming back – guys are finding it tough but after enduring that hardship we are coming out of the other side with some of the results coming back from young and older players.

“We are pushing the intensity in sessions and seeing if their skills can hold up under that pressure.

“We are putting our big guys under that stress on a regular basis so that they are getting more comfortable with playing the game at that intensity and level. That will only reap benefits for us further down the track.”

The information means the Dragons squad are well aware of how they are ranking compared to teammates and rivals.

“It’s pretty transparent and brutal on the players, to be honest,” said Harris. “There is no hiding place in their gym work and on-field, every metre covered is measured.”

“It’s data rich and the task for me to the coaches is to pull out the pertinent bits so that they are really replicating what we want to on the weekend.

“So that’s understanding the way that our back field want to play, which means our wings and 15, are they covering the metres they need to so that no kicks hit grass?

“The same with our forwards working off the ball and playing with ball in hand, are they covering the metres they need to for within our game structure?

“We are breaking boundaries with that as we are pushing the guys.”

However, the Dragons aren’t training by numbers and the eye of the coaching staff remains as important as ever despite the computers.

“The biggest thing that we’ve got with the additional coaches this year is that we are validating what we are doing,” said Harris.

“It’s not only based on numbers, they are backed up by video and we are looking at whether guys are fit for purpose. They are constantly under stress whether technically, tactically or in intensity and hitting the right markers.”