The side have taken on Italy and Ireland in the 2020 competition to date and it is Les Bleus who will be up next in round three.
Looking ahead to that game – which will see Wales return to Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff Blues backrow Johnes is looking forward to some hometown support.
“We played in France last year and they always have great support,” she said. “Hopefully we can have similar support and playing them at home will give us a small advantage compared to playing them away. France are a class team and they have great players all round.
“We have to be physical, keep building, and retain possession for longer. We proved a point in Ireland, maybe not in terms of the result but in terms of what we can do at times and now we have to do sustain that for longer and show that we can be class against another world class side.
“We have three tough fixtures ahead of us. The Ireland game will only bring us closer as a group and it showed us how far we’ve come psychologically and mentally. We dealt with problems during the game and although we didn’t come away with the result we wanted, we kept our heads and dealt with what was in front of us.”
Coach Gareth Wyatt added, “We know how hard everyone’s working. The girls created some opportunities on Sunday but unfortunately we couldn’t take them and Ireland deserved the win and we are working hard to put little things right ahead of France. “There was a fantastic crowd at the Arms Park against Italy, the girls love playing there and really appreciate the support they get. They’ll be as desperate as we are as coaches to put a performance for the supporters and I’m sure we’ll see that on the day.”
Against Ireland, Wales played in atrocious conditions as torrential rain and gale force winds caused by Storm Ciara led to havoc for the Donnybrook clash. Wales nonetheless scored tries through full-back Lauren Smyth and captain Siwan Lillicrap while fly-half Robyn Wilkins added a conversion. “Everyone is disappointed. We can show what we’re capable of at times throughout the game, but we need to do it for 80 minutes and not just the first 15,” said Johnes, reflecting on the 31-12 loss to Ireland.
“We’ve realised we need to be more threatening in attack and more clinical when we have the ball in the opposition 22. Against Ireland we spent so much time there but didn’t come away with tries.
“We have to take those opportunities and it’s frustrating because there are some really good glimpses there and a couple of Ireland’s tries came from missed tackles which are really easy fixes. In a Six Nations you can’t rely on easy fixes because once you’ve made the mistakes, you’ve lost the match.” France Women have won one and lost one from their two games so far ahead of meeting Wales.
Tickets for Wales Women’s remaining home matches – against France on Sunday 23 and against Scotland on Sunday 15 March are available from wru.wales/waleswomen
