WALES team manager Martyn Williams is hoping that two weeks spent at altitude in the Swiss Alps and eight days in the sun in Turkey will prepare his side for an assault on the World Cup in France. The ‘sleep high, train low’ camp in Fiesch - the hotel is at 2,869 m and the training pitch is at 2,212m - has already seen 46 players pushed to their limits over the past week.
New Zealand recruit Taine Plumtree has had an interesting introduction to his potential new teammates, while Taulupe Faleatu joined the squad yesterday for the second week. “It is so unique living on top of a mountain and getting a gondola down to training 1,000 feet below every day. It is an unbelievable setting,” said Williams.
“I was speaking to our defense coach Mike Forshaw about the number of training camps we’ve been on before in our careers, but there has been nothing like this.
“John Ashby, our head of S&C put it all together and he has done a phenomenal job. Logistically it has been an absolute nightmare. They didn’t have a rugby pitch, so we had to bring our own posts and create one, and the red tape associated with getting our equipment here because of Brexit has been difficult.
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