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Wales Online
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Ben James

Wales World Cup trials begin as players told what to expect on first day

Some of Wales' World Cup training squad met up for the first time this week as strength and conditioning coach Huw Bennett laid out the plans for Warren Gatland's side to peak physically in France later this year.

A five-week mini-camp will see players put through their paces, before the whole 52-man squad start the hard work together towards the end of June.

A number of players from Cardiff, Dragons and Ospreys met up at the team's Vale of Glamorgan base to start their work ahead of the World Cup, with Gatland's team heading to France at the start of September.

Moving forward, more players will link up with the squad over the coming weeks on a rolling basis depending on when their club season finishes. The Scarlets, having been involved in a Challenge Cup quarter-final against Glasgow after the regular United Rugby Championship season finished, will join the camp a little later.

One exception to that is Ryan Elias, who ended the season with the Scarlets injured so linked up with Wales from the first day.

READ MORE: Shortlist for Welsh rugby's biggest role revealed

Aaron Wainwright, Elliot Dee and Gareth Anscombe are set to head into camp on Monday after their Barbarians v World XV clash on Sunday at Twickenham. Conversely, Dan Lydiate will leave the mini-camp next week to feature in the Barbarians' clash with Swansea RFC.

Players based outside of Wales, like Saracens' Nick Tompkins and Toulon's Dan Biggar, are likely to get some time off after their domestic seasons before heading into camp.

The start date for the full camp when all players will be present is June 26. Shortly after that, the squad will be reduced to around the mid-40s ahead of their first training camp in Switzerland in early July.

That training camp in Switzerland will see Wales return to the Swiss Alps and Fiesch, where they have spent time before the last two World Cups.

In previous years, the high-altitude camp has seen players live 2,250 metres above sea level and train at a lower altitude of 1,000 metres.

The idea behind that is that players become more accustomed to recovering when there is less oxygen available.

Their second training camp in Turkey is likely to be a warm-weather camp, similar to one they did four years ago. It's likely the squad could be reduced in size again before that trip.

Watch: Inside Wales' World Cup mini-camp

In terms of the work they're currently putting in now, the five-week mini-camp block consists of players being put in different groups, first doing gym work and then conditioning and speed out on the pitch, finishing up around lunchtime.

As a day one video put out by the Welsh Rugby Union showed, Bennett is leaning upon endurance games like offside touch rugby - where players can pass in any direction including forward but give up possession when touched - in his training sessions.

The video also showed his welcome message to the reduced squad at this stage, with the former Wales hooker - who is stepping up to lead the S&C unit after Paul Stridgeon's departure - welcoming the uncapped players as well as joking about how much work Wales' players had put in during their short break since the season finished at the end of April.

"Great to see all the faces," he said. "Seen you on social media the last few weeks, keeping tabs on people and seeing if training is going well.

"This comes from everyone. We want to drive our standards from day one, that's on and off the field. We know what we're going to get on the field. We want to make sure as a collective and a group, we drive our standards off the field as well.

"Mini-camps, it's a five-week block, guys. We're here to work hard, but we're here to enjoy it as well. It's the start of our journey."

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