The Otago under-19 rugby squad will start a training camp in Queenstown this weekend by trading blows with each other.
Queenstown boxing coach Darryl Giddens – who prepared the fighters for the Mountain Scene Thriller in the Chiller event at this year’s Winter Festival – will put the players through a sparring session on Saturday morning after showing them the basics.
“Coach Brett McCormick wants it for a bit of team bonding,” Giddens says.
Squad manager Jason Esplin adds: “We’re just doing something different, out of the box.”
Giddens has run a boxing gym out of the Events Centre’s Alpine Health and Fitness facility since Winter Festival.
The 26-man Otago squad, comprising mainly Dunedin players, arrives in town tomorrow and will stay for two nights at the Shotover Top 10 Holiday Park.
They’ll play a warm-up game in Lawrence on Sunday on the way back to Dunedin before starting their competition season the weekend after.
