Fresh faces arrive in Perth

[travelling_gerry]

By RugbyWA Media



A large contingent of 2012 Emirates Western Force recruits have been arriving in Perth over the past week with official pre-season training set to kick-off at the end of the month.

Exciting young back Jordan Rapana was the first to arrive and started his training regime early to build a solid base before the squad programme begins.

Rapana was part of the Emirates Western Force post-season tour to Samoa and played in the Queensland Premier Grade during the Super Rugby off-season after returning from a two year religious mission in the UK. The gifted athlete has already impressed with his results in strength and conditioning tests.

Fellow league convert Will Tupou, who recently finished the 2011 NRL season with the North Queensland Cowboys, former Waratahs loose forward Locky McCaffrey and exciting young prop Tetera Faulkner have also made their way west with several other expected in the coming days.

The latest arrivals have quickly settled into the WA lifestyle and all have been blown away with the brand new $17 million training facilities the team will use for the first time this pre-season.

The state of the art home of rugby has been getting a workout from a number of players eager to keep their physical well-being ticking over before the official start date with the likes of Ben Whittaker, Kieran Longbottom and Justin Turner, to name a fews, getting acquainted with the new training centre.

All players, aside from the club’s Internationals, will start official preparations for the 2012 campaign on Monday, 31 October with training times to be posted on the club’s website allowing members and supporters the opportunity to see the development of the squad first-hand.

“It’s an exciting time of the year as all the player start coming together and get ready for an intensive pre-season,” Coach Richard Graham said.

“The new players have settled in well and it’s wonderful to see the level of commitment from them and existing squad members already putting in the work to ensure they’ll hit the ground running on October 31.”

http://www.westernforce.com.au/NewsE...5/Default.aspx

[KenyaQuin]

No doubt they would have spotted this somewhere in the "sweat room"..

or this

[Rex Messup]

[The Big I]

Hopefully they can gel as a team quickly so that we can challenge for the title.