Wales’ players have been afforded the luxury of two consecutive days off from training at their base in Hamilton, New Zealand, this week, because of an eight-day turn around before their Round three clash with Namibia allocated by Rugby World Cup schedulers.
A variety of activities have been undertaken as the squad recover from a host of bumps and bruises brought about by high octane encounters with South Africa and then Samoa on the first two weekends of RWC 2011.
Golf, at St Andrews, snooker in Hamilton city centre and surfing lessons on Raglan beach have been among the most popular activities as the squad regroups from two tough matches which took a collective toll on their bodies.
News of James Hook (shoulder) and Dan Lydiate’s (ankle) injuries is not likely to be due for another 24 hours, but the players can rest assured the medical team, and other back room staff, are working hard behind the scenes as they continue the process of physical and mental recovery from the rigours of the opening matches of Pool D.
Ever present in the team room, at current headquarters the Novotel in Hamilton, the National squad analysts are working tirelessly through the hours of rugby footage and statistics generated during the tournament so far, to ensure that players and coaches have all they need at their fingertips when training begins again on Wednesday.
“The analysts lock themselves in the team room morning, noon and night and do everything in their power to ensure we have access to all the video clips and analysis on ourselves and opposition players we could possibly need,”said Wales assistant coach Rob Howley.
“They work tirelessly and certainly put in the man hours to ensure nothing is left to chance.
“They are an often overlooked group, but they are vitally important to the match preparations of an international side.”
One corner of the team room is entirely dedicated to analysis with players having constant access to specifically tailored clips and footage of both their own performances and previous matches played by opposition players.
“We have laptops with different clips which are coded according to our individual needs,” added Wales and Scarlets wing George North.
“As a back three player, for example, I can click on my set of clips and see everything I’ve done in a game and also watch all relevant footage we have of my opposite number.
“We also have our every move in a match analysed individually with tackle counts and line breaks etc all displayed on the wall for everyone to see.
“There’s no hiding place in the team room, but that’s part of the culture we are trying to create as a team.
“We all take responsibility for our own actions, decisions and mistakes, where relevant, and learn from them collectively as a team with the aim of improving each time we take the field.
“There really is no stone left unturned when it comes to preparation at international level we are extremely lucky to have such a hard working team behind us.”
The Wales squad analysis department is lead by head of performance analysis Rhys Long and he is assisted in New Zealand by performance analyst Rhodri Bown, with fellow analyst Andrew Hughes helping out from Cardiff.