Scotland under-19 head and former Hawks coach Peter Wright will be taking medical advice in order to best prepare his players for the IRB under-19 world championships, which will be staged in Dubai next April.

The IRB announced this week that for the first time the Middle East will stage a world championship rugby tournament. The competition, between 4-21 April, will be sponsored by Emirates Airline.

IRB Head of Rugby Services Mark Egan reflected that Dubai was well-placed to host the event, given the success of its sevens tournament on the IRB circuit.

He said: “Dubai has already proved it can host major international sporting events and we are very pleased that the best under-19 rugby players on the world stage will be on display in such a thriving sporting metropolis.”

Maximum temperature in Dubai in April ranges from 30-35C.

Last season’s championship was held in Durban, South Africa and Wright said weather conditions there had presented a challenge to teams from the northern hemisphere.

“I imagine Dubai will be warmer still and asking young players to contest five games of rugby in 16 days in those sorts of conditions will be a test. We’ll be sitting down with the Scottish Institute of Sport and our medical and fitness staff to decide the best way to prepare.

“We put the boys into a heat chamber last year to give them some experience of exercising in heat. Something similar this year might be on the cards,” he added.

Scotland under-19 begin their preparations for the season towards the end of this month when a squad will visit the Royal Marines camp at Arbroath.


note from Ed
Maybe he could take some advice from our own Green Beret--Craig Hodgkinson

This article was posted on 12-Aug-2005, 11:04 by Hugh Barrow.