Ireland Continue Preparations for RWC

[NewsBot]

Ireland Continue Preparations for RWC

The Ireland squad will continue their preparations for the Rugby World Cup this weekend when the players depart for their training camp in Spala, Poland as part of the preseason conditioning programme.

[Burgs]

Ireland Continue Preparations for RWC

Pressure comes on to keep up at the Guinness brewery...

[Flat-top]

That's only for the fans Burg, its a hard job but someone has to do it!

[The Lone Hydrangea]

Yo FT, Ireland are still my smokey.

[Thequeerone]

Ireland off to Poland
05/07/2007 - 16/07/2007

Ireland train in Poland ahead of RWC

www.emeraldrugby.com/news_detail.asp?id=3129

The Ireland squad will continue their preparations for the Rugby World Cup this weekend when the players depart for their training camp in Spala, Poland as part of the preseason conditioning programme

This will be the second trip to Spala this summer. The players who did not take part in the Argentina tour endured a one week intensive training camp during June as part of their return to training. This second trip to Spala, departing on July 8th, will see them joined by members of the Argentina tour party for another week long training camp.
Spala has been an integral part of the Ireland team’s preseason training programme and was first used in 2001. The training facilities include swimming pools, a full sized indoor athletics arena with a reduced impact surface; power and weight-lifting facilities and an outdoor running track and a rugby pitch. It also has the now famous cryotherapy facility which is a large freezing chamber that speeds up recovery from the fatigue of training. You would have thought an Irish Summer would have been artic enough

Following their return from Spala on July 14th, the players will continue their conditioning programmes in their provincial training centres under the guidance of the Irish team & provincial fitness staff.

The next camp for the squad will be the second half and final part to the tournament preparations. The team will join up in Limerick on July 29th and they will remain together in camp for the warm up games against Scotland (Murrayfield, August 11th) and Italy (Ravenhill, August 24th) right up until departure for the tournament on September 5th.

The panel will be reduced to the final Rugby World Cup 30 man squad after the Scotland game on Sunday, August 12th, ahead of the IRB deadline of August 14th.

Speaking about the squad’s preparations, Ireland Coach Eddie O’Sullivan said, “Spala has been an important part of our preparations for the last number of seasons and allows the players to train harder, but more importantly recover more quickly from their physical exertion. The players who did not tour Argentina responded well to their first camp, so we have hit the ground running in our preparations.”

“The shorter off season and less preparation time means we have to be careful how we manage the players, so the preseason programme is very important. After the Spala trips, we will be heading into more rugby specific preparation when we have our first Rugby World Cup camp at the end of July. By that stage we will be into test match mode for our final two warm up games and after that into the tournament itself, so it is really only around the corner.”

[shasta]

It also has the now famous cryotherapy facility which is a large freezing chamber that speeds up recovery from the fatigue of training.

Gee, doesn't that sound like fun!!

Haven't they heard of a quick game of touch and off to the pub?