It all starts tomorrow (Tuesday April 30) as Warren Gatland names his training squad at 12noon. The coaching team met up for a final time on Monday to finalise the selection.
The players will receive the news around the same time the public do and they can start to get their summer diaries in order.
The plan, as outlined previously, sees each player receive four weeks off after their final game. With regions and clubs finishing at different times, that basically means there will be a rolling start to training camps.
Players will report to the WRU’s state-of-the-art National Centre of Excellence (NCE) after their four-week break. Some will be in before others, but towards the middle to end of June the whole squad will be together at the NCE.
They will be put through their paces at their regular training base. The facility just outside of Cardiff features an indoor pitch, altitude chamber, cyrotherapy chamber and a soon to be revealed new gym.
The rigorous schedule will prepare the squad for their first overseas training camp in the Swiss Alps. As per 2015, the squad will head to Fiesch in Switzerland for an intensive fortnight. They will ‘live high’ and ‘train low’ in the resort then return to Cardiff for more preparation ahead of back-to-back fixtures against England at Twickenham (August 11) and Principality Stadium respectively (August 17).
The morning after their second clash with England the squad will head to the heat of Turkey for warm-weather training in the purpose built Gloria Sports Arena before flying home for their final two preparations matches. Wales will face Ireland in Cardiff on August 31st following which in the following week their RWC 31-man squad will be announced. They then face the return fixture in Dublin on September 7.
Wednesday September 11th will see the squad depart for Japan and the Rugby World Cup. Their preparations continue in the host country as they touchdown early, ahead of their official welcome date, and undertake a further training camp in the city of Kitakyushu.
The 2019 schedule is just another element of a detailed plan Wales’ management have put in place to prepare the squad for the 2019 Rugby World Cup and team manager Alan Phillips is delighted with the schedule.
“If you look at our plan, I think it’s perfect,” he said.
“We have put everything in place in order to give the training squad as much preparation as possible. We were really pleased with our approach in 2011 and 2015 and we believe 2019 will be as good.
“Fiesch is fantastic for altitude training and we really benefited from it in 2015. Turkey gives us the heat training we require and with it being a bit closer than Doha but it will be another huge testing week for the squad.
Wales’ 2019 summer fixtures:
England v Wales (Twickenham) Sunday August 11.
Wales v England (Principality Stadium) Saturday August 17.
Wales v Ireland (Principality Stadium) Saturday August 31.
Ireland v Wales (Aviva Stadium) Saturday September 7
Tickets for Wales’ home matches in the UA Summer Series can be found by clicking here.
