Rugby World Cup preparations in full swing

With a little more than a month after their participation in the Nations Cup in Uruguay, some of the National team players are back in town and have been working hard alongside strength and conditioning coach Wayne Proctor, who is assisted by Sergio de la Harpe and monitoring specialist Dominic le Roux. Some of the 50 preliminary players are already hard at work towards possibly being part of the last chunk of players that will be selected for the final World Cup touring squad. The players have currently been split into three groups and train 6 days a week where they can be caught in action in the High Performance Gym, on the field or doing active recovery in the pool. NBC Sport caught up with Louis van der Westhuizen and Prince !Gaoseb to find out how things are going from the players' perspective. "The preparations have been going good. We have been busy for two weeks now. It’s all about fitness so that we can compete on an global level, so this whole pre-session is all about elevating our fitness level and getting us conditioned" !Goaseb said. "It is quite hard. We have to be in form, so we are working hard and the boys are really putting in the hard yards” v/d Westhuizen said. Due to World Rugby standards, players are only allowed to be excused by their clubs 30days prior to the Rugby World Cup - thus the rest of the Preliminary squad who is currently playing abroad is expected to be in Windhoek no later than the 17th of August.

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Christel Kotze