The Sunday Post (Newcastle)

That’s just not bunny...

- By David Kelso mail@sundaypost.com

SCOTLAND’S rugby stars had to kill rabbits at a survival camp to toughen them up.

The commando-style World Cup training tactics saw the hulking players put through their paces by French marines in the Pyrenees.

They yomped to a mountain camp where they were left f re e z i n g h u d d l e d around a tiny camp fire, it’s claimed.

The team’s tough head coach, New Zealander Vernon Cotter, told the bruisers the boot camp would toughen them up.

Former player Jim Hamilton, a 6ft 8in tall lock who weighs 19 stone and was on the trip, said French commandos who could have given them a run for their money on the playing field showed them how to kill and cook the rabbits for their supper.

Saracens star Hamilton said: “A French army guy at the camp pulled out this rabbit and says, ‘this is how you need to kill it’.

“Needless to say, the rabbits didn’t taste that succulent – they were a bit tough.

“But that’s all we had for food, with 35 baguettes.”

The rabbit incident came as the Scotland squad arrived at their preWorld Cup training base at Font Romeu in the Pyrenees last year.

Speaking on his rugby podcast, Hamilton revealed how the stars were left wondering what was going on after being told to turn up at a five-star hotel in Edinburgh.

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