Warren Gatland is putting his Welsh players to the test ahead of the 2023 Rugby World Cup in Paris.
Wales are coming off the back of a very disappointing Six Nations campaign, where they won just one game, against Italy, but they often save their best rugby for World Cups.
Especially since Warren Gatland’s arrival.
The Welsh reached the semi-finals in both 2019 and 2011 under Gatland’s stewardship, and they’ll be hoping for a similar run this time around.
They’re certainly putting in the hard yards ahead of the tournament, with their Kiwi coach giving details at a recent press-conference of the depths they’re going to in training.
“It was more from a psychological challenge that we put them through,” he told reporters.
They did some power endurance stuff, they were carrying logs uphill and then having to go into a pool. We were talking about putting them in uncomfortable positions, where ‘how do you bring your heart rate down? How do you get your composure back?”
You can watch some of the footage below.
🎥 Inside Cymru's #RWC2023 mini-camps: Continued
👊 Digging deep 🏴
#WelshRugby | #AllezLesRouges pic.twitter.com/83pGr9pd1F
— Welsh Rugby Union 🏴 (@WelshRugbyUnion) June 16, 2023
But the worst was yet to come.
“They did some stuff where we had them put in hoods, having water tipped over them when they weren’t expecting it. Babies crying, things going off, and it wasn’t a full day.
“We went there in the morning and finished about 1pm.
“The boys had a bit of lunch, we put some beers on – some had a beer and stayed there for about an hour and enjoyed each other’s company and had some laughs, had some photos with the guys, presented them with a jersey, it was a really good company that was a little bit different.”
Ever use those assault bikes in the gym, as the Welsh players are doing in the video below. If you have, then you’ll know that training doesn’t get much tougher.
👊 "It's been 3 weeks of big graft, and the hard stuff is still to come"
🎩 An in-house Crossfit Games to finish last week, in fancy dress!#WelshRugby | #AllezLesRouges pic.twitter.com/xOe7kjgU9z
— Welsh Rugby Union 🏴 (@WelshRugbyUnion) June 13, 2023
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