Bledisloe Cup: Wallabies in training four times a day in bid to be fit for purpose against the All Blacks

THE Wallabies are training four times a day during a lung-busting camp at Newcastle to have them ready to pull off a huge upset in this year’s Bledisloe Cup.

The Wallabies are doing it the hard way in training at Newcastle.

THE Wallabies are training four times a day and will run 30 kilometres this week in a lung-busting camp at Newcastle to have them ready to pull off one of the great upsets in this year’s Bledisloe Cup series.

The players are being put through some torturous exercises including repeated harnessed bear crawls that forces them to breathe through their diaphragm, a tactic designed to ensure they’re fitter than the All Blacks at the breakdown and tackle areas.

The Wallabies are doing it the hard way in training at Newcastle.

Coach Michael Cheika had his players run up hills with their mouths taped shut last weekend to ensure they could only breathe through their noses.

In the Newcastle camp this week, the strength and conditioning experts in the Wallabies have devised activities to ensure each player will complete 90 “accelerations”, or high-intensity runs, per day. In contrast, a player will usually run 20 accelerations in a Test match.

They have been made to do fatigue-inducing morning cardio sessions, followed by weights and field sessions in the afternoon, and the harnessed exercises at night to build muscular strength, aerobic endurance and core strength.

Each session has also been extended to 90 minutes, as opposed to the usual hour during Test week.

Players said on Monday they’d never been put through such an intense training camp. Cheika made no apologies.

Hill sprints with their mouths tapped shut are not uncommon.

“I want them to be ready and show the public, who haven’t had the greatest time with rugby this year, I want them to show the public who we really are,” Cheika said.

“We have things we’re proud of within the team, and the only chance we have to show that to our supporters is on match day.

“We want people to see who we are on match day, and the only way to do that is for us to own that and take charge, and play 80 minutes of intense rugby to the best of our ability.

“With dedication to the tactical, technical, mental and physical preparation, I think we’ll be ready.”

Cheika wants to replicate an intense pre-season ahead of the Bledisloe Cup series.

Cheika said the match against the All Blacks at ANZ Stadium on August 19 would be an unprecedented challenge for his players given the Kiwi sides went undefeated against Aussie rivals in Super Rugby this year.

“We’ve upped the ante, there’s footy work too, it’s not all intense physical training, but it’s designed to get the guys ready for what will be the most intense 80 minutes of their career, the way they’re playing,” Cheika said.

“We’re not going to do anything unless we’re mentally ready as well as physically ready, the two go together.

“We’ve got to find different ways of supporting each other, to push each other harder, not take the easy option, always go the distance, make the extra effort, get one more, get everything first.

“You want to play with intensity, you want to have an attitude that says ‘I’m not going to stop, I’m going to keep coming’.

“Probably the biggest challenge for me coaching at this level is doing it without a pre-season, which I’ve been used to around [club teams], but that’s the reality of it so I’m trying to work out a way I can get that in and working with the state teams.

“We need to get more uncomfortable over the next 10 days, two weeks, and put ourselves in a situation that asks players ‘Do you want to get one more, do you want to come again?’

“We need to ask those questions of ourselves now.”

Originally published as Bledisloe Cup: Wallabies in training four times a day in bid to be fit for purpose against the All Blacks