Rugby news: Inside Wales' World Cup training camp

The tranquillity of the Swiss Alps is periodically interrupted by three sounds while Wales train at altitude ahead of the World Cup - the peal of bells from Fiesch's tiny church, blasts on a coach's whistle and dry-retching.

The juxtaposition between this slow-going and picturesque village set below the Eiger and one of the mightiest glaciers in Europe and the fast-paced brutality of Wales' sessions is not lost on the players.

'It's a beautiful setting, certainly a very scenic one, but it's been a tough few days,' says Hadleigh Parkes - the centre and star of Wales' recent Six Nations Grand Slam win.

Wales are back in Fiesch, their mountain base from four years ago before the last World Cup, and by all reports this time they are working harder during a two-week camp.

At the side of the three-quarter-size pitch at the foot of the gondola - at 700 metres above sea level - Paul 'Bobby' Stridgeon, the head of athletic performance, explains.

'Some of the boys came in and beat their fitness testing from four years ago in week two, which is phenomenal really,' he says.

'To be honest, this camp has been better than last time. We've got through more work.

'The boys are coping with the workload better. We're really happy with it.' 

The players - despite knowing this will benefit them come Japan - might not be.

Training is typical Warren Gatland intense. Short, sharp, no time to mope. Pre-session stretches turn to quick handling drills to intricate attacking plays. Rob Howley - the attack coach - barks orders.

'Early nomination!' he shouts as the forwards flick balls through their hands while avoiding orange poles.

'No chest catches!' Huw Bennett, the former hooker turned fitness coach, is right in the mix of things. Shouting, directing, motivating.

The yellow and orange cable-car that takes the players back up to 2,222m where their hotel is was too simple a journey for him one day out here. Bennett walked up the mountain through the woods.

'As always with Warren, one of our mantras all the way along is that nobody will work harder than us,' says forwards coach Robin McBryde from underneath his bucket-hat.

'That mantra has worked for us and that is not going to change. We've had hot weather as well as the altitude, and we've got another training camp in Turkey coming up so it's about living in that environment.' 

Stridgeon explains why Wales are here.

'We live up the top of the mountain at around 2,200 metres, so we get all the benefits of that,' he says.

'If you trained at the top of the mountain, the intensity is lowered so you wouldn't make as many gains.

'So we come down to around 1,000 metres, meaning we can still maintain our intensity.

'As soon as training is over, the boys go back up, meaning we spend 20 hours of our day up there.' 

As the analysts film every training move from huge poles with cameras on the end the kickers are practising the 'Dan Biggar' - his iconic kick-and-chase move - while others catch high balls under pressure from Bennett dressed in a big blue pad.

At the other end of the short field the other backs lob looped passes over Gatland holding a long butterfly net to their winger as the other half of the 42-man squad lift weights inside the tennis centre next door.

That building is filled with all the gym equipment the Welsh squad are used to, as it was driven en-masse all the way from Cardiff up here - the WRU finding it a third cheaper to transport the stuff more than 800 miles than to rent it locally.

To cope with the heat Jonathan Davies, Gareth Anscombe and several others have zipped their hair off.

'The boys started shaving their heads during our last week at the Vale, they did it the last time Wales were out here because it was so hot,' reveals Parkes.

'It's not as hot, but the boys wanted short hair for the conditions.' 

As temperatures reach 34.5 degrees centigrade, you can see the logic.

Before long the players whizz back up the mountain - after 'extras' of passing slippery balls into a tyre suspended between a football goal and place-kicking - for food cooked by their team chef Andre, and some much-needed down-time.

As with any touring group, the players are split into committees.

'Brad Davies and James Davies are in charge of keeping the boys entertained, they've been on fire so far,' says Parkes.

'We've got a quiz night coming up next week, George North is on the food committee, he can point the boys to the best coffee shops.

'Jon Davies and Ken Owens are in charge of the fines, they're always looking out for things and trying to get some money from the boys to get the kitty going.

'They're pretty generous because most of their fines money goes to charity which is nice.

'I'm one of the announcers, so people come to me and ask whether they can put messages in the WhatsApp group.

'Rhys Patchell just came to me and asked whether I can put a message about choir practice on the group.

'We're not sure what we're singing yet though.' 

And between the gruelling sessions there is time to relax.

'We've walked to one of the glaciers and we've been up the top of the mountain and looked over the biggest glaciers in Europe,' Parkes continues.

'A group of five of us rented bikes and cycled along the path to the lake around the corner and hired some paddle boards and went out for an hour on the lake.

'It was a beautiful day and we capped it off with some pizza before coming back.

'The boys have brought their PlayStations and iPads for Netflix and stuff, but we're here for a purpose at altitude.

'You catch up with the boys in the team room and have some good chats, you play a bit of cards to keep yourself occupied sometimes.' 

For hooker Ryan Elias, though, playing gin rummy has almost been as harrowing as the training sessions.

'I am going to have to leave the cards at home next time,' he bemoans.

'There's not much to spend up the mountain, so I should be alright - but the cards have really put a dent in it!' 

When Wales need more space they travel 20 minutes down the road to Naters, and FC Oberwallis' full-sized football pitch.

Here on the Saturday in full glare of the Alpine sun, Wales are beasted.

It starts with a beep-test style running drill, with players staggered by position and some end it ready to heave, then moves to a fully-fledged game of 15 on 15 - Liam Williams looking particularly sharp.

Then the backs and forwards split to play a multi-directional game of touch rugby before the XVs game resumes again.

At the close of the session it's a couple of figure-of-eight 'Hennie Muller' runs before a last blast fending and driving tackle bags when spent of energy.

Each session is rated for intensity out of 10 - this Saturday session is close to the top. In a '10' a player might cover six kilometres according to the GPS monitors placed in their shirts.

'Two days ago we did a 10. That is one of the hardest sessions I've ever run,' says Stridgeon.

'Some of the boys were in bits.' Wales hope all this work in the Alps will pay off. They leave on Wednesday, return home for five days off and then it's into the warm-up matches against England and Ireland before the squad is trimmed to 31 and the real business begins.

They believe that no one can be working this hard. They know to reach the summit, you have to climb the mountain.

Source: Daily Mail

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