Sowden-Taylor joins Gatland’s back room staff as S&C coach
WARREN Gatland has strengthened his coaching group for the Rugby World Cup by adding former Wales openside Robin Sowden-Taylor to the strength and conditioning team.
Wales were recently dealt a setback when head of physical performance Paul Stridgeon (pictured
was released early from his contract for personal reasons.
Former Wales hooker Huw Bennett will step into Stridgeon’s shoes by heading the S&C department, and will now be assisted by Sowden-Taylor.
The 40-year-old, who won eight caps for Wales, is well respected among the playing group having been head of S&C at Cardiff for more than seven years.
WalesOnline understands he has already joined up with the Wales camp as the extended training squad begin the hard work which they hope will pay dividends at the World Cup.
Gatland has always put a huge emphasis on the physical conditioning of his players and will insist Wales are among the fittest teams in France this autumn.
The New Zealander wasn’t satisfied with Wales’ fitness during the Six Nations, and will hope training camps in Switzerland and Turkey will prepare his players well for the World Cup.
Sowden-Taylor will have a big part to play in this.
“From my point of view I think we were reasonable but not anywhere near as good as we were in the past,” said Gatland when asked about Wales’ fitness at the start of the month.
“That’s something we pride ourselves on in terms of playing for 80 minutes and not going away, working incredibly hard for each other, and having that desperation.
“You’ve seen that in the past and it’s something I will definitely be focusing on. There were a number of times during games where teams had made breaks against us that I felt we didn’t work hard enough to get back and weren’t desperate enough.”