“ We need to embrace being the hunted rather than the hunter ”

Y HONEYMOON was running laps around the Vale,” Gareth Anscombe laughs. He married his long-term partner Milica Bubanja in New Zealand in June, but there was no time to mark the vows by relaxing on the beach and enjoying candlelit dinners. Instead, it was straight into Wales’ World Cup training camp at their Vale of Glamorgan base – weights, wrestling, horrible conditioning drills… Yet the Wales playmaker is able to put a positive spin on elongated wedding celebrations being replaced by extra gym sessions. “We’re trying to improve and push each other and keep raising standards,” says the 28-year-old.

“It is tough, but this has been my first pre-season since the last World Cup. Usually we come back from tours, have six weeks off, and by the time we come back the other boys have been in for a month. Now we get to spend extra time on fine-tuning the body and this group work