The 27-year-old played through the younger age groups at Pontarddulais RFC before having to stop at 13 when she could no longer play with the boys. She only took up the game again at 17 when she was at Neath Port Talbot College – and was very soon making her Wales debut on the sevens circuit.
She will win her 63rd cap this week and is already eyeing up another World Cup in England next year. She takes over the captain’s arm band from Hannah Jones, who is one of a number of senior players rested this week.
Already famous for keeping her nerve and kicking the last-gasp penalty that beat the Scots at the World Cup in New Zealand in 2022, she plans to stay calm in the dressing room before leading her side out at the Hive Stadium, in Edinburgh.
“I was pretty excited when Ioan Cunningham asked me to captain the side. I certainly didn’t have to think about saying ‘yes’,” said Bevan.
“I haven’t thought about what I might say to the team – I just hope there is some Shania Twain music playing to help keep me calm.
“We are a young team heading to Scotland, but we’ve prepped well and the mood is one of excitement. We are coming off the back of a good win against Spain and we want to use this game in Scotland and then the one against Australia to put us in a good position to go to play in WXV2 in South Africa.
“Our main goal is the World Cup and doing well in that, but there are significant stepping-stones for us along the way. It is going to be a huge year for women’s rugby, and it feels like a home World Cup for all four Home Nations.
“Even though England are hosting the tournament, because so many of the players from Wales, Scotland and Ireland play their club rugby in England it will very close to home for all of us.
“The World Cup is going to be massive for the game globally and we want to be as competitive as we can possibly be when we get there. We weren’t as competitive as we wanted to be in WXV1 last year and then we weren’t very good in this year’s Six Nations to put in bluntly.
“Scotland, Ireland and Italy all matched us in the strides they took. We will park last year but learn from it. We can’t afford to be complacent when we come up against teams we feel we should be beating.
“The game is never won or lost until the final whistle goes and we have to learn from the mistakes we made against the Scots last time. We can’t afford to lose focus.”
