The Ospreys hooker has led Wales to four warm-up victories before they kick off their 2017 campaign with a revenge mission in Italy. Rowland Phillips’ side overcame Scotland, Spain and UK Armed Forces before a thrilling comeback victory over reigning champions Ireland.
Wales trailed 14-0 but tries from Shona Powell-Hughes, Adi Taviner and Sioned Harries, got them back in it, before Elinor Snowsill’s late penalty earned victory at Donnybrook. And Phillips is determined to keep their winning run going against Italy, who inflicted a 16-12 defeat on Wales in the final match of last year’s Women’s Six Nations.
She said: “Our prep is going very well, we’ve had four games and four wins but we know we have a lot of hard work to put in because no game in this competition is easy and we are focusing on Italy, and we’ll take it from there.”
Phillips was confirmed as captain by her father and Wales Women head coach Rowland. The former Wales international took the reins last summer ahead of the Women’s Six Nations and Women’s Rugby World Cup later this year. And Carys believes the current coaching regime have helped Wales find an extra gear.
“Everyone is speaking about the father and daughter thing, but when we’re in camp, he’s my coach and as a squad we have a lot of respect for him. It’s great that this year all of our coaching staff come from professional backgrounds and they bring that expectation for us, which raises our standards in training and matches.”
Wales Women finished fourth in last season’s tournament with two wins. Italy’s narrow victory in the final round saw them finish level on points, and their captain Sara Barrattin is determined to start 2017 the way they finished 2016.
She said: “Next Saturday’s match will be hard, we finished against Wales last season and it was extremely hard but we fought to get the victory. We imagine the next match will be exactly the same.”
