Cardiff Rugby Uncovered’ returns to club channels to provide our fans with the behind the scenes access you’ve been begging for.
Interviews with Matt Sherratt, Ryan Campbell, Rory Jennings and Seb Davies take you into the thick of pre-season and show you just how hard the players are working to be ready for the new season.
In this first block of pre-season, Matt Sherrat is ensuring that our new signings, new coaches and new expectations are managed and integrated properly. The first week back was all about acclimatising new players to their new environment and forming strong relationships between the new boys and the furniture. Head of strength and conditioning, Ryan Cambpell, had the task of balancing pre-season conditioning whilst ensuring nobody went too hard, too fast. There is no benefit in losing a player to injury in week 1 of pre-season.
Slowly, the intensity of training increases. The boys are sent on a gruelling day trip away from the Arms Park to the sand dunes of Merthyr Mawr, in Ogmore. The soft, loose sand makes for a drastically more punishing running track. In episode one, we follow the boys through the “hurt locker” - as labelled by Rory Jennings - of Merthyr Mawr. We want to bring you closer to the action than any regional rugby fan has ever been before, and the sand dunes displayed exactly the immense amount of effort our boys put into being the best versions of themselves in blue and black.