Scotland under-20 in Font Romeu: Scrums, snails and hot springs

Scotland under-20 have travelled to the French Pyrenees for high altitude training camp ahead of their World Rugby Under-20 Championship campaign, following in the footsteps of their senior counterparts who travelled to the same Font Romeu facility prior to the 2015 Rugby World Cup.The camp has received significant funding through Erasmus+, a programme established by the European Commission that allows students and employees to experience cultural and work exchanges throughout Europe, through vocational and educational training.Scotland under-20 players will be giving us an insight into the camp through blog updates, with scrum-half Hugh Fraser reflecting on a training, local delicacies and a trip to hot springs: After arriving on Friday, we’re coming to the end of a tough but rewarding and enjoyable week in Font Romeu.We’ve been training with our French counterparts throughout the week, which has brought about a new level of intensity and focus to the sessions. This will ensure we are best prepared as we can be for our two warm-up matches, including Friday’s against France, leading into that all important Championship opener against Australia.Away from the rugby field, we’ve also been taking a bit of local culture.We visited a local ski resort for a great barbeque, both in terms of food and a bit of team bonding. We started off with snails and Darcy Graham couldn’t get enough!We also visited some hot springs for a bit of downtime, which doubled up as recovery with a twist. It was great, although the sulphur aroma was a bit grim to say the least, as was the journey there – it’s safe to say there was a few nervous boys on the bus as we scaled along the edges of the mountain road!