Heavy legs, gasping for air - Wales stars reveal what it's really like playing at altitude as Pivac's men take on South Africa

Whenever a team tours South Africa, there’s always talk about how they will cope with playing at altitude.

That’s very much an issue for Wayne Pivac's side over the coming weeks, as they will play their first two Tests against the Springboks in Pretoria and Bloemfontein, each more than 4,000 feet above sea level.

So just what is it like playing in the thin air up on the High Veldt? Who better to ask than a couple of former Welsh internationals who have done just that.

Grand Slam winner Jonathan Thomas lined up against the ‘Boks at Pretoria’s Loftus Versfeld under Mike Ruddock in 2004 and was back there four years later with Warren Gatland, with the other Test in that summer of 2008 also being played high up, at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein. The 67-times capped ex-Ospreys forward has a clear recollection of just what it means to play at altitude.

“The hardest part is the start of the game and the first 20 minutes. Your mouth feels incredibly dry. I was an asthmatic as a kid, where you get that tight chest. I sort of grew out of that. But that’s the only way I can describe it. It’s that kind of feeling where you get a really, really dry mouth and this sort of tight chest where you almost feel like you can’t get enough air in,” he said.

“Then, as you go through the game, your body seems to adapt. I think a lot of it is mindset. It’s like anything. It will be tough, but it’s the start that’s the hardest part, the first 20 minutes.”

Former flanker Thomas, who has coached at Bristol and Worcester since hanging up his boots, says there is another key factor to get used you at high altitude.

“The big thing that everyone is aware of is how much further the ball travels through the air. In the first Test in 2008, in