Warren Gatland’s side travel to Twickenham to face England on Sunday for what will be the first of four warm-up games ahead of the tournament in Japan.
After facing England, Wales will welcome the Red Rose back to Cardiff’s Principality Stadium for a sold-out encounter before meeting Ireland both home and away.
For the Wales players it’s a chance to put all the training they have done in gruelling camps in both Cardiff and the Swiss Alps into practice.
“They’re going to be flat out Test matches against England and Ireland,” said Wales lock Cory Hill.
“You want to win every time you put that red jersey on.
“We know they will be tough. No games against England or Ireland are ever easy, but it’s good preparation for the World Cup. They are Test matches and local derbies as well so there’s a little bit more to add to it.
“They are four really exciting games and playing against England and Ireland is the biggest challenge we could have before the World Cup. We certainly won’t be under-cooked because these teams are in the top five in the world.”
Last month Wales travelled to Fiesch in Switzerland where they were put through their paces by WRU head of physical performance Paul Stridgeon and assistant strength and conditioning coach and former Wales hooker Huw Bennett. The purpose of the Switzerland camp was to get Wales’ players in prime physical condition for the challenge to come.
Stridgeon said: “We lived up the top of the mountain at around 2,300 metres so we got all the benefits of that. If you trained at the top of the mountain, the intensity is lowered so you wouldn’t make as many gains.
“We come down to around 1,000 metres meaning we could still maintain our intensity. As soon as training was over the boys went back up meaning we spent 20 hours of our day up there.
“We did some aerobic running, some runways, shuttles, and getting up off the floor. We’ve made gains in our fitness testing on everything.
“It was a great environment for the boys. Our training intensity has increased and we just felt it was a great camp last time, probably the best one I’ve been involved in.
“We wanted to go back. We thought why change just for the sake of it? To be honest, this camp was better than last time. We’ve got through more work this time.
“The boys have coped with the workload better. We’re really happy with it.”
Wales’ four World Cup warm-up games will give head coach Gatland the chance to run the rule over the 41 players at his disposal. Initially there were 42 men in the squad, but last week Bath No 8 Taulupe Faletau was forced to withdraw with a clavicle injury which required surgery.
Owen Lane and Rhys Carre are the two uncapped players in the Wales party who will be looking to make their international bows in the month or so to come.
Sunday’s game with England will be Wales’ first since winning the 2019 Six Nations Grand Slam.
Hill – who scored a famous try in the win over England in February but suffered an ankle injury in the same game and hasn’t played since – added: “I’ve been out since the Six Nations and haven’t played since, so I’ve had a pretty long stretch off.
“It’s the longest I’ve had in a long time, but I’m fit and ready to go.
“It was a pretty special moment scoring against England, but it probably lasted for only 30 seconds until I realised I’d done the injury. That’s rugby, you pick up knocks and I’d had a pretty good run before that.
“I can’t really complain and I’ve just had to deal with it. You’ve got to get yourself in the right frame of mind to get back out there and get fit again.
“It would be nice to play against England again, but we’ve got a huge training squad. Everyone is trying to impress in training to put their hand up for selection.”
