News

Gatland wants bigger players

May 09 2008

Wales Head Coach Warren Gatland believes his players need to add more bulk if they are to compete on a level playing field with the world's best.

Gatland's injury-ravaged squad are currently in Ireland as they begin their preparations for a two-Test tour to South Africa in June.

However Gatland says his players are not the finished article yet and need to add more bulk if they are to build on their Grand Slam success.

"The final piece in the jigsaw is for us to produce the best athletes that we can to compete with the best in the world," Gatland told Scrum V.

"A few players are in the gym trying to put a bit of weight back on.

"Players are getting some good conditioning because we think that long term we feel we have the skill and are playing our game reasonably well.

"We've spoken a lot about the intensity in training and trying to replicate that in training so it goes into a game.

"I think we've made significant progress, but we've got a long way to go and we have a small playing base in terms of Wales as a country.

"For us to do that we think we've got to have the best physical athletes compared to other or bigger countries with more people to choose from.

"That's going to be a real priority for us over the next couple of years and having people like (fitness coaches) Mark Bennett and Craig White on board is hopefully going to give us that edge going forward.