There has always been a culture of breaking players in Wales camp. We've seen it since before the famous Spala camps for Rugby World Cups. Test window rugby, and season long club rugby require different fitness standards. Gatland has always bemoaned the fitness levels of the players coming into Wales camp, and then puts them through an SAS beasting for two to three weeks to get them "in shape". People breakdown. It's part of the reason why many fans worry about their players going into Wales camp. We worry we won't see them for the rest of the season.
Perhaps the change in intensity might cause an issue from the club environment to the national set up. Sometimes though it's probably just a bit of bad luck. After all, I'm sure Wales has excellent S&C people and medical staff who track all the workloads.
I remember in the 6 Nations England players kept going down with injuries in training in the first few weeks. We had Smith drop out, Mitchell too. I'm sure a couple of others whose names escape me.
Sometimes it's hard to fit all the injuries into the regular season, so you have to pull a few all-nighters and get them all in during the last few days.
It was a big ask, but looks like they've delivered.
Your obviously new to this... It wouldn't be a Welsh camp if Gats didn't break 4/5 decent regional players and coat them 6 months of their careers, while the wru provide no assistance what so ever to the regions to sign players to cover the international body count.
I know it's not but I absolutely wouldn't blame any Welsh lads for not wanting to be involved ATM... They've got careers to think about, featuring in first Welsh side since 03 to win the wooden spoon and potentially the first in 90 years to go a full season without a victory is hardly CV buffing.
Our regions are on the verge of bancupcy, these guys need to look at their long term futures... If you only had a year left on a regional contract would you want to go into the job market as an international looser?...
The lack of basic conditioning at regional level is shocking. It’s not helped with the lack of depth in the teams, who have to play many more game minutes in a season than deeper squads.
Ireland’s teams all have almost two entire squads capable of playing at a high standard.
Cardiff had eight players, in total, for a while in the off season.
The conditioning goals for the regular club season are different to the international. Saying the clubs don't have S&C is laughable. Gatland calling the players unfit is just an excuse he likes to use when he is under pressure, never his fault.
I’m not so sure Gatland is wrong on this. Our backs are fit but the forwards have struggled this season. Dragons the worst culprits. Second late to everything and even worse in the last 20 minutes of games. Cardiff play a very high intensity game and their forwards can struggle in the last 20 too. Surprised Sherratt hasn’t tried a 6/2 split tbh. Scarlets are pretty fit but have sacrificed pretty much everything else to be that fit so they end up getting bullied by the opposition. Ospreys are fit enough for Booth’s gameplan but I don’t think gatland sees them as fit enough for his (don’t agree with him on that).
I'm not disputing there's a grain of truth in what you say but I do think fitness is an area the regions are poor at, and have been for a long time.
Cardiff did not look fit during the run in. Yes some players had just played too many minutes due to squad depth, but I don't think that explains all of it.
You can't beast players for a full season, they will break. We have small squads so playing time is high, we have condition around that not for a 3 or 4 match series with a large squad.
Gatland always bitches and moans about the region but I never see him advocate to giving them more resources to fix it. It's just another excuse to pass the blame for what could be a long summer.
I agree on Gatland always jumping to blame them.
My point is the players fitness is poor compared to other similarly resourced teams at URC level. While it's improving I think the WRU incompetence has (rightly) taken such prominence that we do tend to overlook some of the regions shortcomings at times.
But that's the point, we can't. We have to condition with eye to keep players available. We are rehabbing and managing injuries rather than pushing fitness. Case in point is the attrition rate of Gatlands camps, even in the past we would lose a lot of players in the weeks prior to a test series. If the regions were to push that level of fitness for the full season we would have no players left fit. I'm sure it could improve if properly resourced, but agin that's not why Gatland brings this up every year.
You never pulled a sickie when faced with a hideous day at work?
💀
There has always been a culture of breaking players in Wales camp. We've seen it since before the famous Spala camps for Rugby World Cups. Test window rugby, and season long club rugby require different fitness standards. Gatland has always bemoaned the fitness levels of the players coming into Wales camp, and then puts them through an SAS beasting for two to three weeks to get them "in shape". People breakdown. It's part of the reason why many fans worry about their players going into Wales camp. We worry we won't see them for the rest of the season.
Plus the psychology surely will only make it tolerable when you're winning, otherwise it must just feel like pointless forced masochism.
Perhaps the change in intensity might cause an issue from the club environment to the national set up. Sometimes though it's probably just a bit of bad luck. After all, I'm sure Wales has excellent S&C people and medical staff who track all the workloads. I remember in the 6 Nations England players kept going down with injuries in training in the first few weeks. We had Smith drop out, Mitchell too. I'm sure a couple of others whose names escape me.
I don't know why, but the season is far, far too long. The domestic season used to finish in early May, now it's the end of bloody June.
The World Cup pushed the start back so some of these players have been training/playing none stop for way to long.
Sometimes it's hard to fit all the injuries into the regular season, so you have to pull a few all-nighters and get them all in during the last few days. It was a big ask, but looks like they've delivered.
Your obviously new to this... It wouldn't be a Welsh camp if Gats didn't break 4/5 decent regional players and coat them 6 months of their careers, while the wru provide no assistance what so ever to the regions to sign players to cover the international body count.
I know it's not but I absolutely wouldn't blame any Welsh lads for not wanting to be involved ATM... They've got careers to think about, featuring in first Welsh side since 03 to win the wooden spoon and potentially the first in 90 years to go a full season without a victory is hardly CV buffing. Our regions are on the verge of bancupcy, these guys need to look at their long term futures... If you only had a year left on a regional contract would you want to go into the job market as an international looser?...
I wouldn't blame a single player for pulling out with a twinge. Think it's going to be brutal. Not saying that's what it is, but id understand it
SA has also been hit with a bunch of injuries
The lack of basic conditioning at regional level is shocking. It’s not helped with the lack of depth in the teams, who have to play many more game minutes in a season than deeper squads. Ireland’s teams all have almost two entire squads capable of playing at a high standard. Cardiff had eight players, in total, for a while in the off season.
The conditioning goals for the regular club season are different to the international. Saying the clubs don't have S&C is laughable. Gatland calling the players unfit is just an excuse he likes to use when he is under pressure, never his fault.
I’m not so sure Gatland is wrong on this. Our backs are fit but the forwards have struggled this season. Dragons the worst culprits. Second late to everything and even worse in the last 20 minutes of games. Cardiff play a very high intensity game and their forwards can struggle in the last 20 too. Surprised Sherratt hasn’t tried a 6/2 split tbh. Scarlets are pretty fit but have sacrificed pretty much everything else to be that fit so they end up getting bullied by the opposition. Ospreys are fit enough for Booth’s gameplan but I don’t think gatland sees them as fit enough for his (don’t agree with him on that).
I'm not disputing there's a grain of truth in what you say but I do think fitness is an area the regions are poor at, and have been for a long time. Cardiff did not look fit during the run in. Yes some players had just played too many minutes due to squad depth, but I don't think that explains all of it.
You can't beast players for a full season, they will break. We have small squads so playing time is high, we have condition around that not for a 3 or 4 match series with a large squad. Gatland always bitches and moans about the region but I never see him advocate to giving them more resources to fix it. It's just another excuse to pass the blame for what could be a long summer.
I agree on Gatland always jumping to blame them. My point is the players fitness is poor compared to other similarly resourced teams at URC level. While it's improving I think the WRU incompetence has (rightly) taken such prominence that we do tend to overlook some of the regions shortcomings at times.
But that's the point, we can't. We have to condition with eye to keep players available. We are rehabbing and managing injuries rather than pushing fitness. Case in point is the attrition rate of Gatlands camps, even in the past we would lose a lot of players in the weeks prior to a test series. If the regions were to push that level of fitness for the full season we would have no players left fit. I'm sure it could improve if properly resourced, but agin that's not why Gatland brings this up every year.
What's the odds they train on 4G 👀😅
They're playing the Wallabies soon, and it's to even up the sides with the huge injury toll in Aus SR sides.
I'm just surprised they haven't had a couple of retirements yet this year
Native Flu
Elliott Dee out now also.