68 Sport WALES WOMEN have today
announced their 32-player squad for the upcoming Women’s Six Nations. Head coach Rowland Phillips
finalised his selection after yesterday’s victory against Ireland at Donnybrook – a result which means Wales Women have now won four from four since Phillips took charge in 2016. Phillips says that cutting down
a squad of approximately 50 players was a difficult task. “It’s always tough when it comes to selections, because everybody has been working so hard over the past few months,” he said. “There were plenty of tough calls, but I’m confident of the process we went through to get to this point.” Included in the squad are players
recently identified in the regional programme, such as forwards Morfudd Ifans, Brea Leung and Gwenllian Pyrs, whilst players returning to the set- up after a short break include centre Rebecca de Filippo and front row Lowri Harries. Since the autumn, Wales Women
Break: A Blues player breaks with the ball from the line out but is then tackled
Haverfordwest Pontarddulais
0 39
League 2 West A POWERFUL second half
showing from Pontarddulais saw them come away with a comfortable victory against Haverfordwest on Saturday (Jan 21). There was a much different score
at half time as the Blues had done well to keep their opponents at bay and the away side only went in at the break with a 5-0 lead. Josh Goss made the breakthrough
for the visitors shorty before the break but the conversion was missed. Early in the second half, Pontarddulais extended their lead
when Nicky Hopkins broke down the left to score his side’s second try and the conversion was successful. The Blues had to contend with a
number of injuries, with one requiring the stretcher to be brought out as a precaution. After a lengthy delay, Pontarddulais
went further ahead. They were given a scrum and their powerful pack pushed them all the way to the line before Hopkins emerged with the ball to touch down. The conversion attempt was missed. Gethin Williams then got his name
on the score sheet as he broke through a number of tackles to touch the ball down under the posts to set up an easy conversion. The Blues continued to battle and
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deserved points on the board for their efforts but they were unable to get through a determined Pontarddulais defence. Paul Geary also crossed in the
right corner for the visitors but the conversion was again short of the mark.
They were not finished there
and had two further tries from Craig Davies and Geary with his second. Things do not look good for the
Blues, who remain bottom of the League 2 West table with just one win to their name this season. On Saturday (Jan 28), Haverfordwest will look to bounce back when they take on fellow stragglers Llanybydder, who are third from bottom.
have recorded wins against Scotland, the UK Armed Forces, Spain and Ireland. Whilst he is pleased with the results on the scoreboard, Phillips insists that he and his assistant coaches, Nick Wakely and Paul Young, have been focused on improving the team’s overall performance. “We’re fully aware of what the
past four games have been about,” says Phillips. “The results are an added bonus. The real thing for us was for the players to understand the physicality and intensity of top teams, and they certainly experienced it yesterday against Ireland.” Ireland, ranked fifth in the world,
gave Wales Women plenty to think about, according to Phillips: “They are a quality side, with a lot of very good players. The first 25 minutes or so we were completely under the cosh. But what evolved after that was that we got to terms with the intensity, and by the end of the game we were comfortably
THE HERALD FRIDAY JANUARY 27 2017
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Blues beaten in second half Women’s Six Nations squad named
playing at that level.” Now Phillips wants his squad to
focus on the next challenge – ‘with feet firmly on the ground’ – with Wales set to face Italy away first up in the Women’s Six Nations. Supporters can then look forward to two huge home matches at the BT Sport Cardiff Arms Park against England (February 11) and Ireland (March 11) – something Phillips expects to be a fantastic occasion in the capital. “Those two home games are
significant for us as far as standard of opposition goes,” he said. “We’re hosting the world champions and Ireland, who showed us yesterday what a threat they are across the park. It’s going to be a huge competition for us, and we saw throughout the autumn how big a difference the home support made.”
Wales Women’s Six Nations Squad: Forwards: Alisha
Butchers
(Scarlets), Mel Clay (Ospreys), Nia Elen Davies (Cardiff Blues), Amy Evans (Ospreys), Cerys Hale (Newport Gwent Dragons), Lowri Harries (Scarlets), Sioned Harries (Scarlets), Morfudd Ifans (Scarlets), Brea Leung (Scarlets), Siwan Lillicrap (Ospreys), Shona Powell- Hughes (Ospreys), Carys Phillips (c) (Ospreys), Gwenllian Pyrs (Scarlets), Rebecca Rowe (Newport Gwent Dragons), Rachel Taylor (Scarlets), Caryl Thomas (Scarlets), Meg York (Newport Gwent Dragons).
Backs: Keira Bevan (Ospreys), Elen
Evans (Scarlets), Jodie Evans (Scarlets), Rebecca de Filippo (Newport Gwent Dragons), Dyddgu Hywel (Scarlets), Jasmine Joyce (Scarlets), Jessica Kavanagh-Williams (Scarlets), Kerin Lake (Ospreys), Sian Moore (Newport Gwent Dragons), Charlie Murray (Newport Gwent Dragons), Rhiannon Parker (Cardiff Blues), Gemma Rowland (Newport Gwent Dragons), Elinor Snowsill (Newport Gwent Dragons), Adi Taviner (Ospreys), Robyn Wilkins (Ospreys).
Game changers appointed THREE individuals have been
appointed to radically increase and improve rugby opportunities across the grassroots end of the game for women and girls. The aptly named ‘game
changers’ for North Wales, South East and South West Wales will work with all areas of the WRU rugby department, along with clubs, schools and hub officers, to increase the number of women and girls regularly involved in Welsh rugby – and improve the rugby products on offer for the Welsh female population. UsGirls Project of the Year
Award winner Lauren Thomas takes up the West Wales role, former Welsh Gymnastics South East Wales Club Development Officer Katy Evans has landed the East Wales position and former Newtown school club
hub officer Dave Roberts has been appointed to make a difference for women and girls in the North Wales Development Region. WRU Women and Girls manager
Caroline Spanton said: “These three high calibre individuals will have the challenge of taking women and girls rugby participation in Wales to the next level. We know there is huge demand for rugby by women and girls from the success of the first season of cluster centres, when participation levels doubled but we also know there is massive scope to become one of, if not the top female participation sport in Wales. “There is a blank canvas for the
game changers in many ways and the sky is the limit in terms of where the roles take us as a national sport. We will need to make some brave decisions to reach our aspirations
of making it the norm for women and girls to be involved in rugby but with this team now on board, I know we can do this.” WRU Head of Rugby
Participation Ryan Jones added: “It is a strategic priority for us as a Union to become more attractive to women and girls and to remove barriers to enable anyone to participate. “Our purpose is to enable more
people to be involved in rugby more often, with more enjoyment and more success and it is therefore vital to invest in people whose job and sole focus will be to make this a firm reality. We all need to work together with the game changers to ensure we offer various forms of the game and a way of delivering rugby which appeals to women and girls of all ages.”
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