“It’s been a great week here. It’s a beautiful place and it’s great for the boys to see the environment they are going to be working in. The training pitch is second to none and there is a new gym here and we can’t have any complaints.

“I think this week will benefit us. We have spent a lot of time working as a team. Slowly we are getting our patterns right and slowly we are getting our moves right.

“The more we work as a team, the more prepared we will be for the game against England."

Wales most-capped, and highest try-scoring player has been putting in the hours in the gym of late and says this week’s excursions on the field have given him a taste for the big-match arena:“It’s been tough to get back into the rugby. You can do all the running and weights in the world but nothing prepares you the hits and the physicality of a rugby match.

“But we are all rugby players so within two or three days we are getting back to normal. And I think the little taste we have had on the rugby pitch will make us all hungry to get into a game.”

And looking ahead to the Invesco Perpetual Summer Series in the Millennium Stadium in August, Thomas said: “Argentina and France are some of the best teams in the world, and I think it's pointless playing a friendly against a team that you know you are going to beat easily.

“I feel the world game of rugby has come on leaps and bounds and I feel it's pointless playing against teams that aren’t going to push you hard and find your weaknesses, so come the Rugby World Cup we will have had the chances to put those weaknesses right.”

Wales’s World Cup hopefuls will play an ‘in-house’ training match on Friday and will face England at Twickenham on August 4th.