KEY POINTS:
The Wallabies will trade their luxury beachfront hotels for an army-style boot camp next week in their bid to gain a Rugby World Cup edge.
The team will assemble at Brisbane Airport on Sunday morning before being whisked away to a mystery Queensland location.
From there, they will
be under the control of Brisbane-based company BLP Training, which did the same with Australia's cricket team last year before they regained the Ashes against England then successfully defended their World Cup title in the West Indies.
Details of the Wallabies' camp are being kept secret but the Australian newspaper reported it would follow a similar format, with players deprived of food, water and sleep before being given complex team tasks in an effort to strengthen the bond between them.
Cricket star Shane Warne admitted he had reservations before last year's boot camp, but said afterwards that there was "no doubt" it brought the squad closer together.
That was after he'd vented his anger at coach John Buchanan on his tour of duty: "These boot camps are a big waste of time. We were forced to push a car uphill, and after a bit I just turned to the coach and said, 'I'm as weak as piss, I hate your guts and I want to go home. You're a dickhead'."
BLP Training operations manager Grant Doyle said the camp would be "very demanding and dynamic" but would take care not to impact physically on the Wallabies, just over a month before the World Cup.
First five-eighths Stephen Larkham admitted there was a sense of trepidation within the squad as they based themselves in a plush beachfront hotel at Manly in Sydney this week.
"I'm certainly looking forward to it; anything where there is a challenge involved I enjoy that sort of stuff. It's just a matter of what they are going to put us through," he told the Daily Telegraph.
"A lot of stuff has been thrown out there about sleep deprivation and food strikes. It's a bit exciting at the moment just to speculate what is going to happen."
Assistant coach Michael Foley said the purpose of the camp was to put the side into stressful situations.
"It is to actually challenge guys mentally and put them in situations where they have to resolve things together," Foley said.
"The hope is that shared hardship, which is more a mental rather than a physical thing, will be a good growing experience.
"Having a bit of an insight into the camp I can't help but have a bit of a smile knowing what the boys are going to go through."
Other pre-World Cup camps have resulted in mixed success on previous years.
Springboks coach Rudolph Straeuli infamously put his side through a bizarre Camp Staaldrad before the 2003 World Cup in Australia.
Leaked photos later emerged of players being forced to wade naked in cold streams. The team were among the big disappointments of the 2003 tournament.
John Hart gave his 1999 All Blacks squad a very public boot camp, in which they were pictured in boiler suits carrying heavy logs, among other activities.
It's history that they bowed out to France in the 1999 World Cup semifinals.
- NZPA
