NORWAY'S assault on the World Cup is being prepared and master-minded at Blackburn Rovers' training ground.

Once a month, between now and the big kick-off in France, all Norwegian internationals playing in the Premiership will converge on the luxurious Brockhall training facility to practise their skills and tricks.

Ironically, Norway are in Group A, the same as Rovers stalwart Colin Hendry's Scottish side.

A spokesman for the Norwegian Football Association told the Citizen: "We chose Blackburn Rovers training ground because the facilities are wonderful and its location is ideal for our players, most of who play for Northern clubs."

Players gracing the turf at Brockhall include Liverpool's Stig Inge Bjornebye and Oyvind Leonhardsen, Manchester United's Ole Gunnar Solkskjaer and Ronnie Johnsen as well as Blackburn's out-of-favour midfielder Lars Bohinen.

The first training sessions - described as light get-togethers by the spokesman - were held last Sunday and Saturday and are scheduled to be held every three weeks between now and the World Cup, which gets underway on June 10.

National coaches will fly out to the training sessions, which are designed to help the team blend together before taking part in friendlies ahead of the big event.

The spokesman added: "Blackburn have been very good to us and we are very grateful to them. Such preparation can only be a good thing, seeing as we have such tough opposition in our group."

Group A comprises of Scotland, Brazil, Morocco and Norway. Norway will be one of the first teams to play, meeting Morocco at Montpellier on the opening day.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.