Grand Slam Stars to hit TV screens
Leigh Halfpenny jogging alongside the horse in the advert.
Leigh Halfpenny and George North are starring in a new rugby advert hitting television screens next week.
Wales rugby boss Warren Gatland has become notorious for imposing a brutal training regime on his Grand Slam winning players and the international duo are featured undergoing some gruelling sessions of their own.
Blues full-back Halfpenny’s ad is reminiscent of actual footage released last year, which showed the Wales squad sprinting on a frozen beach at their pre-RBS 6 Nations Championship training camp in Gdansk, Poland.
Halfpenny shot his item on a beach in Rest Bay, Porthcawl and was asked to race a galloping horse as the film director pits man against beast to symbolise the physical conditioning required for a modern athlete to compete at the very highest level.
Scarlets wing North journeyed to a Caerphilly mountainside (Coed-y-Wenault) where he is depicted carrying tree trunks across the forest laden landscape.
The ads are the first two in a four film series which will later see fellow Scarlet Rhys Priestland and Dragons flanker Dan Lydiate training in their own unique environments.
The players are featured as part of a campaign encouraging fans to support their national side at the Millennium Stadium this November, as they attempt to re-create last season’s Grand Slam glory starting with the Dove Men Series against Argentina, Samoa, New Zealand and Australia.
“We are the reigning RBS Six Nations Champions and all four of the teams visiting Wales this Autumn will be looking to knock us off our perch,” said Welsh Rugby Union Commercial Head, Craig Maxwell.
“This campaign is all about showing just how hard the players have worked to get where they are and reminding the fans that the players need them now as much as they have ever done.
“We have the chance to host Southern Hemisphere teams back on home soil, after with spending a lot of last season away in New Zealand and Australia.
“The coaches will prepare this Wales team as well as ever, with another gruelling trip to Poland already planned before that first match against the Pumas.
“We are sure everyone is excited in seeing Samoa, Argentina, New Zealand and Australia at the Millennium Stadium and are ready and willing to get behind Wales again for a new season of international rugby.
“This marketing campaign aims to show the players in a way no fans have seem them before, preparing for the autumn in their own unique ways using the amazing countryside of Wales as a backdrop.
“We hope the images will inspire fans to support the team across the four matches.
“We know what it will mean to this side to get a Southern Hemisphere scalp to go with last year’s Grand Slam and they won’t want to lose a single game in the series.
“They will be putting the hard work in and we hope we have reflected that with this advertising campaign and we hope that it reminds the nation that the players both need and deserve our support.”
The strapline for the campaign is ‘Our Land, Our Way’ and is designed to inspire the whole of Wales to get behind its national side.
To see adverts click on http://www.wru.co.uk/matchdaytv
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