Australia coach Kevin Walters has revealed he will bring in a ‘sleep specialist’ to help his touring Kangaroos adjust to what he has labelled the ‘worst flight possible’ for their trip to England.
The world champions travel to England next week, and land in London in the latter part of the week to give them a full week to prepare for the historic opening Ashes Test at Wembley Stadium later this month.
But Walters has started early with a touch of somewhat predictable mind games, firing a shot at the Rugby Football League – who have disgracefully gone to the trouble of covering the Kangaroos’ travelling costs AND ensured the players will travel business class for good measure too.
However, Walters is not keen on the fact that their itinerary calls for them to arrive in London late in the evening – and has brought a guru in sleep into camp to help steel the players for the jet-lag they may encounter.
“The RFL (Rugby Football League), in their kindness, have given us the worst flight possible to be flying to England if you’re a sports team,” he told the Inside Ball podcast in Australia. “It couldn’t have been worse.
“We have hired, without giving away too much information, a sleep specialist, who specialises in overseas travel and sporting teams and making sure they get the best available preparation.
“You’ve got to adjust quickly. Before we go it’ll start. Little things like sleeping tablets and trying to adjust to arriving. We arrive in London at 8:15pm. We don’t want them going to sleep at 8pm because they’ll be awake at 4am.”
Walters did, however, insist he didn’t want to dwell on it too much after also revealing that the players will be in business class for the whole trip.
He continued: “We don’t need to get stuck into it too much. They’re good flights and the players are flying business class. They managed to find me a seat at the front of the plane. It’s very important we get that part of the trip right.”