ONE OF THE key men in Warren Gatland’s Wales backroom has been poached by an NFL franchise — less than six months before the Rugby World Cup begins.

Adam Beard is set to be announced as the Director of High Performance by one of American football’s top teams in the coming days.

As Wales’s Head of Physical Performance for the past six years, Beard is credited with reinventing the country’s high performance programme and innovating in the area of player conditioning.

Gatland said: “While I am disappointed that Adam is leaving before the Rugby World Cup this is an opportunity that only comes around once in a lifetime and to attract this interest from the NFL shows how far our high performance reputation has grown in recent years.”

Beard said that he was disappointed to miss out on the World Cup but added: ”The decision to go was undoubtedly made easier because of the strong team in place along with the outstanding facilities we now have in place here in Wales.

“We have been developing our high performance protocols for a number of years now and the plans for Rugby World Cup are already in place and I look forward to monitoring Wales’ progress closely.”

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