His first job is looking after England’s conditioning, but Walters importance to the squad is far more profound than that
A week before their opening match of the 2019 World Cup against New Zealand, South Africa are training in the midday heat of Kagoshima in southern Japan. Pitchside thermometers are touching 40 degrees while the humidity is so high that it only takes a few steps to be drenched in sweat.
On the pitch, the Springboks are engaged in what several players describe as the most brutal session of their careers. Every player loses at least a couple of kilograms in sweat and several are questioning their life choices, including hooker Schalk Brits who had come out of retirement for the tournament. “At that exact point, I was thinking why did I come back? I wish I had stayed retired,” Brits tells Telegraph Sport. “I think I was curled up in bed, fast asleep by 8pm that night.”
The session pitted a pair of players against each other across four stations: watt bike, breakdown cleaning, tackle bags and then wrestling. That was repeated with minimal rest. “That was one of the toughest things I have ever done,” Tendai ‘Beast’ Mtawarira, the prop, said. “I did not think I was going to survive.”
Barking the orders in his distinctive Welsh accent was head of strength and conditioning Aled Walters who since joined Steve Borthwick with Leicester and now England. Those England supporters in search of a shaft of hope entering the World Cup following an underwhelming series of warm-up games should listen to the Springboks’ experience.