Heat is turned up on Welsh team

Wales have turned the heat up on their players as part of preparations for this autumn’s World Cup in Australia by staging training sessions in scorching 98 degree conditions.
As if the heatwave sweeping the UK was not enough, the Welsh management turned on the heaters at their Vale of Glamorgan indoor training centre in a bid to acclimatise the squad to the weather conditions they are likely to encounter down under.
And Llanelli prop Iestyn Thomas admitted the soaring temperatures had quite literally taken the players’ breath away.
‘It was unbelievably hot in there, as soon as you opened the door the heat just hit you in the face like a wall. It was hard to get your breath at first,’ said Thomas.
‘At one stage the temperature was up to 36 degrees, which was sweltering, but it’s all part of trying to acclimatise us to conditions in Australia. It takes some getting used to, however, especially for someone born in Pontypool.
‘It just saps your energy so everything you do requires a little more effort than usual. You must lose a fair few kilos by the end of the exercise, by the end of the session our shirts were soaked through.’
However Thomas and Co will be wearing new shirts for the World Cup after their new strip was unveiled at the Millennium Stadium on Thursday, 4 August.
Alongside Thomas at the launch was Colin Charvis who has pledged his future to Wales’ World Cup bid after a group of businesses agreed to sponsor the unemployed British Lion.