Finally it is starting to make sense. England’s poor form in their pre-World Cup warm-up games has been extensively documented but there was a cunning plan all along. And its architect? A Welshman who openly admits to being “hard” at times, with a penchant for taking players “to dark places” and using watt bikes as his instruments of torture.
Meet Aled Walters, the strength and conditioning guru with one of rugby’s more impressive CVs, having previously helped South Africa lift the Webb Ellis Cup in Japan in 2019. The Springboks lost their opening game but bounced back to conquer the world. Now the Carmarthen-born Walters is in England’s corner and is busy working on the sequel.
