Wales fit and fired up

Welsh forwards coach Robin McBryde was positive about the fitness of the squad.

"Dan Lydiate and Bradley Davies are a bit battered, but they are fine. Paul James came through a running test, so he will be integrated into both sessions on Tuesday," he said.

"Liam Williams is undergoing the concussion protocols but as far as I am aware, he is ticking all the boxes at the moment."

McBryde, a former hooker who won 37 caps for Wales, was crowned as the winner of Wales' Strongest Man in 1992 and believes the team have benefited from a similar style of training.

"If you actually see the footage, it wasn't an out-and-out strong man competition, it was based on agricultural shows," he explained.

"It's a lot of the functional training that the boys do now, pulling and putting bags of feed in trailers, climbing up ropes and lugging poles around.

"They're finding now that the more work they do out of the gym, the more beneficial it is as opposed to just being in the gym and lifting things in a straight line."

Wales' scrum came under pressure in the games against England and Fiji and with Australia's set piece having improved dramatically since the appointment of scrum coach Mario Ledesma, McBryde pinpointed this area as a focal point for Wales' training this week.

"We were awarded a penalty try against them [Australia] in November, so we need to take some confidence from that. They're benefiting from Ledesma as a coach so there is a certain Argentine flavour to their scrum," he said.

"The challenge is there and fortunately we will have had a week to focus on the perceived weaknesses in our scrum.

"It's very much gone back to the art of scrummaging under the current laws. You have to have a different mindset and a different approach. Australia have certainly benefited from those changes and are scrummaging well as a unit."

Back to basics

Samson Lee, who came on as a second-half substitute in Wales' clash with Fiji, will be in contention for a starting spot in Wales' front row on Saturday, and he believes the new laws have simplified the scrum.

"At the end of the day the scrum is just about who pushes the hardest," he said.

"You just have to go back to basics and get your height right to win the pushing competition. I'd agree that the scrum is less technical, the hits have been taken away so there are no excuses for dropped scrums."

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