Whenever a team tours South Africa, there’s always talk about how they will cope with playing at altitude.
That’s very much an issue for Wayne Pivac's side over the coming weeks, as they will play their first two Tests against the Springboks in Pretoria and Bloemfontein, each more than 4,000 feet above sea level.
So just what is it like playing in the thin air up on the High Veldt? Who better to ask than a couple of former Welsh internationals who have done just that.
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Grand Slam winner Jonathan Thomas lined up against the ‘Boks at Pretoria’s Loftus Versfeld under Mike Ruddock in 2004 and was back there four years later with Warren Gatland, with the other Test in that summer of 2008 also being played high up, at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein. The 67-times capped ex-Ospreys forward has a clear recollection of just what it means to play at altitude.
“The hardest part is the start of the game and the first 20 minutes. Your mouth feels incredibly dry. I was an asthmatic as a kid, where you get that tight chest. I sort of grew out of that. But that’s the only way I can describe it. It’s that kind of feeling where you get a really, really dry mouth and this sort of tight chest where you almost feel like you can’t get enough air in,” he said.
“Then, as you go through the game, your body seems to adapt. I think a lot of it is mindset. It’s like anything. It will be tough, but it’s the start that’s the hardest part, the first 20 minutes.”
Former flanker Thomas, who has coached at Bristol and Worcester since hanging up his boots, says there is another key factor to get used you at high altitude.
“The big thing that everyone is aware of is how much further the ball travels through the air. In the first Test in 2008, in Bloemfontein, I was in the backfield when the ball had been kicked through and one of our wingers had chased it. I looked across and there was no-one in the backfield, so I sort of hung back.
“Their full-back put an up and under in and I just remember it going up and up. I’ve never seen a kick go so high. It was absolutely ridiculous how high it went. Then it was one of those where everyone was looking at each other and going ‘Right, who is going to catch this?’
“As it was coming down, I remember thinking ‘Oh s***, this is coming towards me’. Fortunately I caught it, but it was more by luck than judgement. It just came down and landed right in the bread basket. It was more of a fluke than anything.
“But those are the things you will have to deal with. The warm-up will be tough. It will be ‘Oh gosh, give me some water, I’m gasping for breath’. It will be the first 10, 20 minutes, especially at Test match intensity where the game always starts fast.
"That will be the tough thing and also how far the ball travels in the air. Discipline is important too because goal-kickers who can kick the ball 50 metres can kick it 60 metres at altitude. So you need to limit the number of penalties you concede.
“The South Africans will be familiar with playing at altitude and used to it. The Welsh mindset has to be we don’t get blown off the park in the first 20. If the ‘Boks have a fast start, it can be hard to come back.”
Like Thomas, former Scarlets winger Mark Jones started both Tests in South Africa in 2008 and well remembers the draining effect of playing at altitude.
“It feels like you have just got heavy legs. You know some days when you go for a walk and you just feel lethargic and your legs feel heavy? It just gives you that feeling.
“You just don’t feel sharp, you feel like your reaction times are down and obviously you are gasping for air because it’s thinner. As a winger, that’s a horrible feeling because you want to feel fast and sharp. That was the thing that hit me.
“You will chase a kick and for the next 30 seconds your recovery time is just exaggerated. It’s not too dissimilar to going for a run after having a cold. You don’t quite feel at it. So the altitude will be a big factor for the Wales players next week, I would imagine.”
The 47-cap Jones, who is now backs coach at Worcester, also has clear memories of how the thin air affects the aerial contest.
“In 2008, Jamie Roberts started the first Test in Bloemfontein at full-back. There was a guy called Conrad Jantjes at 15 for the ‘Boks and he was putting up these spiral bombs. It was my first experience of them in that game,” he said.
“The ball was coming down and Jamie couldn’t get near it. I think Shaun Edwards said ‘He won’t be playing full-back next week’ or words to that effect! Jamie was then moved into the centre for the second Test. So we can thank his incredible career to the spiral bombs he was getting bombarded with in Bloemfontein because they were horrendous. That’s what I remember that game for, the ball travelling a long way and they had a lot of kickers in that team.
“They also had the biggest forward pack I have ever seen. I remember Gats going round the backs in the week and saying ‘Speak to the forwards, tell them they are looking big and strong’. To be fair to our forwards, they were looking fit and big, but then we stood next to the ‘Boks in the tunnel and I thought ‘We might be big and strong but we are not as big and strong as them’. They were absolutely enormous.
“They were the Tri-Nations champions and we had won the Six Nations that year, so it was the battle of the hemispheres. I have got this memory of the first couple of rucks, with Alun Wyn Jones and Bakkies Botha bridging over a ball and Bakkies was counter-rucking. They were clashing heads like two rams. The ball had long gone and they were still ramming each other. I was thinking to myself there has got to be more to life than banging heads with that monster!”
Having only travelled from sea level in Cape Town to the heights of Bloemfontein the day before that first Test, Wales were outgunned as they lost 43-17, with Percy Montgomery among the try-scorers for the rampant ‘Boks. Jones feels the unfamiliar conditions certainly played a part in the defeat.
“They took us straight to altitude and we got caught with our pants down a little bit. We weren’t acclimatised to it. We lost that one quite heavily. The week after, in Pretoria, we were much better. You had acclimatised to the conditions a lot more and it was a lot less of a factor. I felt a hell of a lot better. We were more than a match for them in the second Test and probably should have won.”
Unlike the class of ‘98, Wayne Pivac’s Wales have headed straight to altitude, in Johnannesburg, to prepare for the first two games against the Boks on the High Veldt.
Reflecting on the differing approach 14 years ago, Jonathan Thomas says: “I know back then there were two schools of thought. It was either you get in at least five or six days before and get used to the altitude or you remain at sea level and fly in 24 hours before. You go in late. It’s almost get in, get out. We were at sea level in Cape Town and flew into Bloemfontein the day before the game.
“We weren’t great in the first Test but the second Test we actually played really well and we went with them for the distance. It was just a couple of late tries that cost us.”
That rematch in Pretoria saw Shane Williams score a wonder try to give Wales the lead, only for the hosts to ultimately win 37-21. It will be Loftus Versfeld as the setting again next week for the opening Test for Pivac’s men.
“Loftus is one of the most intimidating venues I played at,” says Thomas. “If the ‘Boks start well there and get momentum, then the crowd really feed off that positive energy and it becomes very difficult to break that. The Wales leadership group and the coaches need to speak about that at length and prepare themselves for it. The first 20 is key.
“So the altitude and the crowd will be big factors. It will need a big physical defensive effort in the first 20 or 30 minutes, but if they can do that they have got every chance of doing well.
“The game is always about physicality against those guys and no more so than at altitude and at Loftus. But it’s a really great experience as well at one of best venues in world rugby to play at.
"You can’t be fearing what’s coming. You’ve got to be relishing the opportunity of playing against the best in the world. A lot of it is about mindset and trusting your fitness levels and physicality.”
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