Both the Hurricanes and the Waratahs relished the cooler weather in Durban Tuesday as they began their serious preparations for the weekend's Super 12 rugby matches against the Cats in Johannesburg and the Sharks in Durban.

But whereas the Waratahs, current pacemakers in this year's competition, chose to split their initial Durban training into two halves, the Hurricanes had a strenuous two hour session at the Absa Stadium.

What emerged from the latter was the passionate and intense nature of their workout after which Hurricanes coach Graham Mourie said: "We are pretty happy with the way it worked out.

"We had a light run Monday to get over the journey and now it was more organisational in nature with the forwards being given an extra bit of work at the end."

Well, work they did on the old wooden frame scrum block laden with a dozen or more sturdy men for more than 30 minutes. Mourie said: "I think it was a good workout. Obviously we still have a long way to go.

"We have not won the games we would like to have done yet and the Sharks present a real challenge. We know they are playing pretty good rugby at present and will be very hard to beat here.

"So our guys are aware they have a lot of work to do before they get to where the Sharks are. After all, they beat the Brumbies and the Highlanders in successive weeks and that takes some doing."

The only major injury worry so far was that of wing Brad Fleming, but he is on the mend as is flanker Kupi Vanisi who sat on a heavy roller throughout the practice session.

Meanwhile acrosss town, the Waratahs split their forwards and backs with the backs having a morning run and the big men active in the gym in an hour long session.

Later there was to be a switch with the forwards on the field and the threequarters sitting it out on the exercise bars.

Inevitably the question arose as to why the team chose to train in Durban rather than in Johannesburg as both the Highlanders and the Brumbies had done before them and the answer was that it did not really matter.

Team doctor Sharron Flahive said she could not understand the approach to the alleged `altitude bogey'.

She said: "To be really serious one would need to have two weeks to acclimatise anyway. We don't have the luxury of that amount of time available to us."

Clearly the Waratahs believed it was a matter of choice and they, like others before them, preferred the coastal facilities rather than those of the Highveld.

Their observation prompted mirth is that they said: "If you are good enough to win you have to be good enough to do so anywhere."

Both the Hurricanes and the Waratahs will name their sides after training Wednesday afternoon. - Sapa