Gatland will name an extended training squad on Monday June 8th and following programme timed off players will convene later that month at the state of the art WRU National Centre of Excellence.
Early morning conditioning sessions will be the order of the day for the squad, to prepare them for a punishing July, which Gatland has stressed will be no holiday camp.
“The summer is going to be really tough on the players,” said Gatland.
“I want to stress that the squad aren’t heading to five star hotels and lauding it up in luxury surroundings.
“They will be staying in campus style facilities, two to a room, small beds, eating in canteens with other athletes.
“There is nothing fancy about it, its purely hard work and hopefully we will get a lot of benefit out of it.
“They will be up at the crack of dawn and will be put through their paces all day. It’s a punishing schedule.
“We are announcing an extended squad on June 8th and players will get some rest and then they will be staggered into training after that period and meet up in camp at the Vale later in June.
“That will be to prepare them for the first camp which takes us over to Fielsch in Switzerland on July 1st.
“We will spend about 15 days over there and the boys will be sleeping up at altitude, coming down in the morning for training in the cable car. Basically, sleeping high and training low.
“We come back for a few days before then heading off to Qatar for warm-weather training.
“It was something that was really effective with the Lions a few years ago. The players got a lot of benefit from it, training at that heat increases the hemoglobin in the blood, helping the red blood cells and the players got a huge hit out of that.
“We come back for the first Dove Men Test against Ireland here in Cardiff before a few days in North Wales. We will head back to Poland before the return fixture against Ireland in Dublin.
“We will announce our 31-man RWC squad on August 31st ahead of our final warm-up clash against Italy.
“We have worked closely as a management team and are excited about our schedule. We have put a big emphasis on conditioning in the past and that has really benefited us and we are hoping for that again.”
Dove Men Tests:
Wales v Ireland, Millennium Stadium, Saturday 8th August, Kick-off 2.30pm, priced at £50, £35 and £20 (£10 under 16 concessions)
Wales v Italy, Millennium Stadium, Saturday 5th September, Kick-off 5.00pm, priced at £35 and £20 (£10 under 16 concessions)
Tickets are available from wru.wales/tickets, by calling Ticketmaster on 0844 847 1881, in person from the WRU Ticket Office on Westgate Street or your local club.
