Wales claimed a comfortable 23-5 victory over Japan at Cardiff Arms Park with plenty of positives to build on in their opening game of the autumn campaign.
Almost straight from kick-off, a successful start came from the captain, Siwan Lillicrap, after she touched down for Wales in the first minute of the match. Elinor Snowsill’s conversion was unsuccessful but Wales took an early 5-0 lead.
Wales went 8-0 up after an on-target penalty kick from Snowsill. Wales’ scrum overpowered the Japanese and a penalty was given from 30 metres out.
Wales got another scrum penalty, and opting for the posts, Snowsill was again successful, adding three to Wales’ tally.
At the halfway mark, and Japan not fancying their chances from the 10-metre mark, the home side went down the tunnel at the break 11-0 ahead.
Wales’ Georgia Evans received a yellow card after a deliberate knock-on just six minutes into the second half.
Jasmine Joyce then scored a try out of nowhere. She created space and an opportunity from nothing on her own and scored Wales’ second try of the evening. A successful conversion then came to Snowsill making the score 18-0 to the home side.
In the last 10 minutes, Joyce then scored a try from very short range to increase Wales’ advantage.
Japan started to fight back in the final stages with Seina Saito getting over the line but it was too little too late as Wales claimed their first victory in two years.
Joyce claimed the DHL Player Of The Match award in front of 1,024 fans.
Wales’ captain Lillicrap said: “I’m extremely pleased and happy with our performance.
“I think the work rate and effort was there, the set-piece was really good and it was a huge step up from where we’ve been before.
“The character which we showed to win that game, I couldn’t be prouder of the girls. We absolutely needed that.”
