The Wales rugby team ended the third week of
World Cup camp with a gruelling fitness session themed around fancy dress. Former international hooker and Wales Strength and Conditioning coach Huw Bennett has been putting the players through their paces in the sessions so far, and he pushed them to their limits again at the tail end of last week. Footage from the 'mini-camp' has been shared and shows the Wales players working together closely as Warren Gatland focuses on creating the right culture in a squad that has received a number of setbacks in recent weeks. Last week, Cory Hill joined Alun Wyn Jones, Rhys Webb, Justin Tipuric and Rhys Carre in leaving camp, with the squad down from 54 to 49 players. Despite those losses, which have happened for a variety of reasons, Gatland is excited by the young talent in his squad and the emphasis on team bonding is well and truly under way. In previous weeks we've seen video of the players being beasted by the likes of Bennett and Jiu-Jitsu coach Chris Rees , and the latest footage from inside the camp shows the team taking part in an in-house CrossFit Games, with players working in teams of three and taking part in a variety of energy-sapping physical tasks involving weights and aerobic exertion - all while in fancy dress. Players can be seen lying on their backs exhausted at the end of it all. You can watch the video below. George North, Aaron Wainwright and Tomas Francis were the overall winners while dressed as decorators, with North describing it as a "horrible session" North said: "We've had a tough week, but we've ended it with an in-house crossfit games, we had teams drawn out of a hat, this is my team: Waino and Franny. "It was a pretty intense 35 minutes with different challenges, and then we had best-dressed, which we didn't win. "This sort of horrible session starts that culture now. Everyone helps each other out, get the hard work done, graft together. It's been three weeks already of big graft, and the hard stuff is still to come. So we can start this foundation and then push on from it." Wainwright added: "We were getting to the end of it and it was just how far we could get on the Wattbike. The end goal was just to get to that, and then we were just digging in. Legs are burning a little bit, but it's good to dig in from the boys." Head coach Gatland also addressed the squad, saying: "Okay. Just well done. That's what we want to create, you guys working for each other and don't want to let each other down. We've got to dig deep, help someone out, that's exactly what we're trying to create." For the fancy dress, Kieran Hardy, Kemsley Mathias and Rhys Davies were sporting patterned, vibrant shirts, while Owen Williams, Elliot Dee and Leigh Halfpenny appeared to be dressed as
basketball players. Poll: How far will Wales go at the World Cup? Have your say here or below The five-week mini-camp will conclude at the end of next week. After all players have joined up on June 26th, there will be a short time before the squad size is reduced and the full camp begins. The smaller squad will then travel to Switzerland to undergo high altitude training to improve fitness. They'll then move on to
Turkey where the squad size will be reduced once again. The final 33-man squad will be named after the three August warm-up matches. Wales' World Cup campaign kicks off against Fiji in Bordeaux on Sunday, September 10th. Read next: Warren Gatland wouldn't have taken Wales
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