WHILE most sane people were enjoying the heatwave in their gardens or even on the beach, Minehead Barbarians' players were training hard, in the scorching weather.

It was amazing to watch the players running around on Tuesday night carrying eight foot long logs and doing sit-up exercises while holding them.

Fitness coach Chris Thorne said: "By working the lads so hard in July, we intend to have a very high level of core fitness when the playing starts at the end of August."

Director of rugby Ken Hirons added: "From now on, we will be starting to add more rugby skills work on to the fitness training, but we certainly intend to have one of the fittest squads in the Western Counties League.

"Although the majority of the Barbarians squad are training regularly, there are just a couple more who we need to be at training with the others."

In addition to sweating on the pitch, most of the players are using the club weights room at least twice a week to build muscle.

As well as the friendly match against Taunton, Minehead will also entertain Bridgwater at the Ellicombe ground.