Publications
Partners
London - Wales coach Warren Gatland believes that South Africa, New Zealand and Australia will be better prepared for the Rugby World Cup than the Six Nations teams.
Gatland will have to rely on friendly matches to bring his team up to match fitness, because the northern hemisphere is currently in it's off season, while the Tri-Nations teams will have played four competitive matches against each other by the tournament’s start.
According to the Sky News website, Gatland hopes that the time his team have spent training together will be adequate preparation.
"The southern hemisphere teams will probably be a little bit better prepared, in terms of the game time that they will have had together," said Gatland.
"But hopefully we've got the physical preparation done as well in terms of having what is almost like a pre-season - we've had a little bit of a break and we've been able to do the work in the gym.(There has been) some quality time spent together as well, which you don't usually get."
Wales visited Poland twice in July for intensive training camps at the Spala Olympic training centre, and also spent time training at the Welsh Rugby Union Centre of Excellence.
The team will face England at Twickenham on Saturday, then again at the Millienium Stadium in Cardiff the following week and then Argentina on August 11 at the Millennium Stadium.
Gatland will have to rely on friendly matches to bring his team up to match fitness, because the northern hemisphere is currently in it's off season, while the Tri-Nations teams will have played four competitive matches against each other by the tournament’s start.
According to the Sky News website, Gatland hopes that the time his team have spent training together will be adequate preparation.
"The southern hemisphere teams will probably be a little bit better prepared, in terms of the game time that they will have had together," said Gatland.
"But hopefully we've got the physical preparation done as well in terms of having what is almost like a pre-season - we've had a little bit of a break and we've been able to do the work in the gym.(There has been) some quality time spent together as well, which you don't usually get."
Wales visited Poland twice in July for intensive training camps at the Spala Olympic training centre, and also spent time training at the Welsh Rugby Union Centre of Excellence.
The team will face England at Twickenham on Saturday, then again at the Millienium Stadium in Cardiff the following week and then Argentina on August 11 at the Millennium Stadium.
