London: Gdansk, the Baltic port where the Solidarity free trade union emerged in 1980 under future Poland president Lech Walesa, has played host this year to the Wales team preparing for the Six Nations championship.
The Welsh held two separate camps in Spala before last year's World Cup and were impressed by the benefits of an intensive training programme, including the use of cryotherapy chambers where temperatures plunge to minus 160C.
They decided to return to Poland again this year for a week's training in Gdansk before travelling to Dublin this week for Sunday's opening match against Ireland.
"I do really enjoy it," Wales captain Sam Warburton said at the official championship launch in London last week.
"I love training, if I wasn't playing professional rugby I would be training every day of the week anyway. A week in Poland, there are no distractions, there is just you, you eat, train and sleep, eat, train and sleep. It's the training which is hard, going into the chambers is the easy bit. You walk in for four minutes, you walk out, you are still nice and dry."
Gruelling workouts
Coach Warren Gatland attributes Wales's spirited displays at last year's World Cup in New Zealand to the confidence gained during the gruelling physical workouts in Poland.
"We believed in our conditioning, the players were very confident in how fit we were," Gatland said.
"New Zealand is the hardest country in the world to go and earn a bit of respect. We did this as a team."
Wales's hopes of reaching the World Cup final against New Zealand were effectively scuppered in the 18th minute of their semi-final against France when Warburton was sent off for a dangerous tackle.
But Warburton is not dwelling on what might have been. "It's not an issue," he said. "My grandad died before Christmas and I kind of realised there were more important things in life and much worse things can happen."
