Wales Women Get Army Treatment

from RBS Six Nations:

Welsh coach Jason Lewis believes a gruelling two-army camp was just the tonic his women’s squad need ahead of the Rugby World Cup. Spirits have been low in the Welsh camp since a disappointing RBS 6 Nations in which they finished rock bottom with just two points. But Lewis maintains putting his squad through further adversity will bring his team closer together before the World Cup kicks off in August.

He said: “It was about people appreciating other peoples efforts, pulling together, showing real team spirit.

“Those things transfer to rugby and we saw a load of that this weekend and it really has brought us that much closer together.

“There were a couple of objectives: we wanted to enjoy each others company, we wanted to face a bit of adversity and we wanted to have some internal competition.

“That was a challenge that we all rose to and I think it ticked all those boxes.”

The squad were put through their paces by Lance Corporal Chris Long from the second Battalion, Royal Welsh.

And after making them suffer for a period, Long is confident the squad will be able to cope with whatever world champions New Zealand throw at them in the group stages.

He said: “Obviously when they’re playing rugby they need a lot of endurance and a lot of stamina, more importantly they need to work as a team.

“We were putting them under pressure by throwing them in rivers, making them go up mountains so they’re working as a team to get these tasks done which is exactly the same as on the pitch.

“They’ve got to achieve a goal working as a team which generates that teamwork under pressure to be able to apply it to a sport.

“Everyone pulled together, worked hard, pulled everyone through, picked up a couple of injuries but we worked around them, everyone did really well.”