"As a player you need to see light at the end of the tunnel"

FOR TEST players it's pretty much every four years that you get a proper pre-season. You've finished the season early, you get four weeks off and then you go into a World Cup camp from mid-June. Whereas normally, if a Test player is on a summer tour, you have a short summer break and then you're into it.

- KEN OWENS

If you're not an international, you get a full pre-season every year but this one has been even longer because leagues like the URC want as much exposure as possible with star players back in. So there was six weeks off from the end of the season, those players were back with clubs mid-June, while the Test players hit camps, and then it's been a four-month pre-season. That's longer than they've ever had.

The tough thing for coaches is to periodise that so players aren't burning out, and you've got to motivate them. At Scarlets there was six weeks off, a two-week block, a week off, a three-week block, a week off, then another three-week block before two weeks off... Having those shorter blocks is to keep guys motivated. As a player you need to see light at the end of the tunnel. Normally you have some standard blocks but you know then there's rugby - and that's when the fun begins.