Warren Gatland’s squad flew out to Fiesch last Wednesday and will spend this week being put through their paces as they aim to be the fittest team in Japan.
And despite having won a Six Nations Grand Slam and being in the midst of a 14-game unbeaten run, Owens has warned his side they must be better if they’re to make an impact at the World Cup.
“It’s a tough couple of weeks now, but we’re in a good place as a squad,” said the Scarlets hooker.
“We’re highly motivated, highly competitive, and pretty confident at the moment of where we are.
“We know we need to keep improving because other teams will. We’re second in the world at the moment, but to win the World Cup we need to be No 1.
“We’ve still got a way to go to get there. It (Wales gruelling fitness training) is not pleasant, but we know why we’re doing it and what the purpose of it is, especially if you’ve been through it before.
“You can see the results it gives you and the places you can get to in those big matches. The first thing you can turn to is your fitness. You can back yourself to dig in and go the distance when it’s tough.
“It serves a massive purpose, it’s worked over the last two World Cup cycles, and going into the third it’s massively important. You reap the rewards of the effort.”
Wales have been drawn in a tough World Cup pool alongside Australia, Fiji, Uruguay and Georgia.
“We’ve seen Fiji beat France in France and they are an ever improving side,” Owens said.
“Like you see at every World Cup when the South Sea Island sides get an extended period of time together, they’re very dangerous. You can’t write off Georgia either.
“They’ve got some strength and weapons in their side and they’re not going to be a pushover either.
“Going into Uruguay we’d like to think we’d win that game, but they’re not just going to turn up and roll over to give us the points we need.
“We can’t just say all we need to do is beat Australia because we might end up losing the other games. We have to go game by game and get the results.”
