Wales reached the quarter finals of the showpiece tournament in the ‘Land of the Long White Cloud’ and demonstrated the value of the recent investment of full-time and part-time contracts for players the best players in Wales.
Siwan Lillicrap has now retired
The success at the recent World Cup was laid during the previous Six Nations, in which Siwan Lillicrap’s team produced performances full of grit and determination to finish third in the table. The awarding of professional contracts, the Six Nations campaign and then the performances at the World Cup certainly captured the imagination of the Welsh public last year. The profile of the team and the players were all raised thanks to the introduction of a new professional set-up for the national side.
Then, of course, there was Keira Bevan’s last gasp penalty to clinch an 18-15 victory over Scotland in the World Cup Pool match in Whangarei. That will live long in the memory of all Welsh rugby lovers.
Keira Bevan’s winning kick against Scotland
Wales kick of their forthcoming TikTok Six Nations campaign against Ireland at the Arms Park on 25 March. Head coach Ioan Cunningham has set his squad the challenge of repeating their success in last year’s tournament.
“We need to back-up what we did last year in the Six Nations as a minimum. Everybody knows that England and France are the top two sides in the tournament, and then there is a shoot-out between us, Ireland, Scotland and Italy.,” said Cunningham.
“If we can back-up what we did last year and close the gap on England and France, it will be a success. From a player point of view, we do need to expose some younger players because we have to grow the belief and confidence in the squad during this Six Nations as we look ahead to the next World Cup in 2025.
“Once the World Cup in New Zealand ended, we drew a line in the sand. Now we are ready to start again as we will build from one World Cup to the next. Due to Covid, it is a shorter turnaround to the next tournament.
“We’ve already eaten into that first year, so we have to find new talent. We’ve had a natural evolution where some players have retired, and we now have to add new players to the group.
“It’s all about the balance over the next two years of developing talent and improving as a team.”
Wales are now at the start of a new cycle, with the likes of former skipper Lillicrap having retired after the World Cup. The focus now is very much on building a team for England 2025.
Hannah Jones takes on New Zealand
It means the likes of Hannah Jones, Georgia Evans, Natalia John, Alex Callender and Lleucu George becoming the next generation of players to take the team forward. But what is Cunningham’s verdict on the last World Cup campaign?
“It was a success. Reaching the quarter finals was the goal we set ourselves before we left Wales,” said Cunningham.
“From a performance point of view, I still believe there is a lot of work for us to do. We showed in last year’s Six Nations, and then at the World Cup, we are a tough team that never goes away.
“Our victories were late in matches, when we hung in there and stayed in the fight until the end. That is a great trait but now it’s about how we compete and execute things against the best teams.
“Overall, the World Cup was a positive experience, both on and off the field. We spent some real time together and that only made us stronger as a group.
“We would have liked to have had two wins in the Pool stages by beating Australia to go along with the victory over Scotland. That would have been a really good achievement for us.
“You could feel the momentum growing, and it was a real learning experience for the players being away from home for so long. They had to learn how to manage hotel life and the professional rugby world.
“It’s all about preparing throughout the week for the Test match at the end of the week. Those are things that maybe people don’t see and that was an invaluable discipline for the players to learn.”
Cunningham and his coaching team learned much about their players and saw first-hand how the trailblazers of the women’s game, like England, New Zealand and France, prepared.
The five weeks the squad spent together produced a tight group with a common purpose, but also gave Cunningham the opportunity to share ideas with a coaching legend like Wayne Smith. Smith has now lifted the World Cup with the All Blacks and with the Black Ferns.
“We shared a hotel with the Black Ferns twice and that gave us the opportunity to talk to the likes of Wayne Smith and Mike Cron to discover how they did things and discuss the challenges of a tournament like a World Cup,” added Cunningham.
“They had a real infrastructure around their team, and they had the biggest number of staff around the Black Ferns – they had 21 staff in total, which was huge for them. We had a great team of 17 support staff.
“To see how everybody was aligned behind the Black Ferns in New Zealand rugby was really impressive – they set themselves the target of winning the trophy and they did it.”
While Cunningham, his coaching team, and the players are determined to have another successful Six Nations, he also sees the bigger picture and accepts the duty his team has to inspire the next generation of Welsh players.
“We want to inspire young girls and young boys to play the game and get involved in rugby. We want people to see it as rugby and to watch it as rugby.
“We want to inspire players, supporters and sponsors around the game to help it grow. We want everyone to get excited about this Wales team.”
