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Roberts: It’s good to be back

Roberts: It’s good to be back

Jamie Roberts arrived at Wales’ infamous Polish training camp in Spala late on Sunday and declared “it’s good to be back.”

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Blues centre Roberts, who underwent reconstructive surgery on his knee this summer forcing him to miss the international tour to Australia, was the high profile recall to interim head coach Rob Howley’s squad for the Dove Men Series.

Wales face Argentina, Samoa, New Zealand and Australia at the Millennium Stadium on consecutive weekends starting next month.

A Wales training squad has visited Olympic training villages in Poland on two previous occasions – ahead of their semi-final reaching 2011 Rugby World Cup campaign (Spala) and to prepare for their 2012 RBS Six Nations Grand Slam campaign (Gdansk).

Roberts completes his Polish hat-trick this week, having been present on both previous visits and he is a huge advocate of the intense training environment which he knows will be created for him and his fellow squad members over the next week.

“It’s good to be back fit again and good to be back with Wales,” said the 44-times capped outside centre who was the British & Irish Lions Player of the Series in 2009.

“I have had three or four full games back now with the Blues, we may have had some disappointing results but I feel as though I’m getting back into the groove and becoming battle hardened again.

“All players want to play and it was a particularly difficult place for me to be this summer, watching Wales play out in Australia and come so close. The way things panned out for Wales on tour is motivation enough in itself for all of us as we go into a tough campaign this autumn.

“And we are back out in Poland and putting in all the hard work necessary to ensure we are best placed to achieve our aims this November.

“I’ve been out here on both occasions previously and those camps were followed by a Rugby World Cup Semi-final and a Six Nations Grand Slam so there is no reason why we can’t achieve similar levels of success this autumn.

“We arrived late last night and today (Monday) is a recovery day for a lot of the players with lots of battered and bruised bodies around. The coaches and performance staff are aware of that so they are managing our workloads.”

Roberts, as a final year medical student, has a unique understanding of the benefits of the cryotherapy sessions which the Wales squad use to aid recovery from their intense training in Spala.

“We know what is ahead of us, there is a really good structure to the training days, interspersed with the cryotherapy sessions which aid recovery,” said Roberts.

“Coming from a medical background it’s obviously something that interests me and I’ve had many conversations with the performance staff and coaches about it.

“It’s hard to quantify the physiological effects of the cryotherapy, you certainly feel better but there is a much more obvious psychological effect on all of us just from coming out to these camps.

“We are taken away from the public glare and focus that is on us in Wales and concentrate on training at an intense level. 

“We also get to spend time in each other’s company so there is a team bonding element to it as well. 

“There is also nothing else to do here but train so we do that at an intense level and we obviously reap the benefits of that when we get into competition time.

“Going through all that hard work together gives you massive gains as a squad.”

WALES FIXTURES STILL ON SALE:
10 November 2012, 1430hrs, Millennium Stadium – WALES v ARGENTINA Adults £30 U16 £10
16 November 2012, 1930hrs, Millennium Stadium – WALES v SAMOA Adults £25 U16 £10
1 December 2012 1430 hrs, Millennium Stadium – WALES v AUSTRALIA From £60
Tickets online: wru.co.uk. Tel: 0844 2 777 888

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