Munster get in top condition at La Manga Club

In a bid to ensure the Irish outfit retains their 1st place on the ERC European Rankings ahead of Toulouse – winners of the 2010 Heineken Cup Final – more than 40 players from the squad spent a week at the five-star La Manga Club villas resort.

The warm-weather training camp in south-eastern Spain offers a first-class, year-round practice facility in an ideal climate. The week-long break gave the team the perfect start to the campaign, allowing them to undergo some warm-weather training on first-class facilities that has previously hosted Middleborough FC, Real Betis, Castleford Tigers, the Great Britain Rugby League squad and Glen Hoddle’s 1998 England World Cup squad.

Everything Munster Rugby Club needed was provided: from the top quality rugby pitches and villa holiday accommodation of the highest standards to full catering services, a host of other activities such as golf, tennis, a fully equipped Fitness Centre.

Munster Director of Rugby, Tony McGahan, who is tasked with the job of ensuring the club achieves domestic and European honours in 2010/11 said: “The resort provided us with the ideal environment in which to prepare for the season ahead and I would have no hesitation in recommending it to other sports groups.”

Weather Warnings for UK

As the met office warns of further bad weather in the coming days, Brits are left dreaming of villa holidays in the sunshine.

Brits on luxury villa holidays have returned home this week to torrential rain, and are hoping the summer is not over for the UK this year. On Sunday more than half the average rainfall for the month fell in under an hour in some parts of the UK. Further heavy rain is expected in north-east England, Yorkshire, Humber, western Scotland and Northern Ireland in the next few days.

Drivers have been warned to prepare for tricky conditions and possible delays. Severe weather warnings have been issued for heavy rain and risk of flash flooding and gale force winds for the North of the country.

Despite it only being August the weather is certainly feeling autumnal with the weather more typical of October. Meanwhile in the Algarve they have also been experiencing unusual weather patterns for the time of year as heat waves continue to descend upon villas in Portugal this year with temperatures souring above average.