Record crowd ready to cheer Wales’ bid
IOAN Cunningham is hoping a record crowd at the Cardiff Arms Park can inspire his Wales Women side to another significant win over Scotland Women today (4.45pm).
Wales began their Women’s TikTok Six Nations campaign with a famous come from behind victory over Ireland at the RDS in Dublin last weekend. Cunningham has decided to go with the same starting XV against a dangerous Scotland side.
More than 4200 tickets have already been sold for the fixture which exceeds what is believed to be the current record for a standalone women’s international in Wales of 4113 (Wales v England 2017).
“I want to reward the performance from last weekend, but I also wanted to give the girls the chance to play at home in front of our home fans along with their friends and family,” said Cunningham.
“I also wanted to give them an opportunity to back up a good performance, and hopefully we can do it again this weekend. It will be fantastic for us to have an atmosphere like we had last weekend or even better.
“It was excellent to be a part of. The girls thrive on it, and they love it. It’s the stage we want to be playing at. It was a great weekend, and the girls were excellent.
“It’s about trying to stay on top of that now, but also making sure we get our detail right this weekend.”
Wales were tremendous in both attack and defence in Dublin with former Scarlets coach Cunningham particularly impressed with the way they closed out the game.
“When we reflected on the autumn we wanted to focus on the last quarter,” he said. “We felt that was an area where we dropped off, but we finished very strongly last weekend.
“Physically we’ve also improved along with the mental side of the game, staying in the fight, understanding how to close the game out, and staying on top of teams. We are really pleased as a coaching group how we finished last Saturday.”
Bryan Easson’s Scotland began their Six Nations campaign with a disappointing 57-5 defeat to a strong England side.
But Cunningham is refusing to underestimate the visitors and has warned his players they will have to be at their best to come out on top.
“The score didn’t reflect Scotland’s performance in my opinion,” he said. “Scotland were very good, and tested England in certain areas of the game. They are going to come with a different type of threat with high balls with a lot of phase attack. “They are a team who have been together as well having played against Colombia, so they are going to be a tough challenge.
“We are really looking forward to it especially at home with our support behind us.” One player who has been on top form has been full back Kayleigh Powell. The Bristol flyer caused Ireland havoc with her counter attacking ability, while her ability under the high ball was also commendable. Powell was recently awarded a Welsh Rugby Union retainer contract and is relishing the opportunity to represent Wales.
“A couple of months ago at a girls camp we were running it hit home when one of the girls asked me if I played rugby for Wales as my job and when I said yes, she answered by saying that she wants it to be her job one day,” said Powell. “That hit home as I was that girl over ten years ago who wanted this to be my job and so to see that thread through already is amazing to see. It’s such a privilege to be able to represent Wales especially having recovered from a few injuries.
“Just to get back with the girls after the injuries was something that kept pushing me all the time, through all of the injuries all I could think about was getting back on the pitch with the girls and wearing that red jersey.” Wales: Kayleigh Powell; Lisa Neumann, Hannah Jones, Kerin Lake, Jasmine Joyce; Elinor Snowsill, Keira Bevan; Gwenllian Pyrs, Carys Phillips, Cerys Hale, Natalia John, Gwen Crabb, Alisha Butchers, Alex Callender, Siwan Lillicrap (capt). Reps: Kelsey Jones, Cara Hope, Donna Rose, Sioned Harries, Bethan Lewis, Ffion Lewis, Robyn Wilkins, Sisilia Tuipulotu. Scotland: Shona Campbell; Rhona Lloyd, Emma Orr, Lisa Thomson, Megan Gaffney; Helen Nelson, Jenny Maxwell, Leah Bartlett, Lana Skeldon, Christine Belisle, Emma Wassell, Sarah Bonar, Rachel Malcolm (capt), Evie Gallagher, Jade Konkel. Reps: Jodie Rettie, Panashe Muzambe, Katie Dougan, Lyndsay O’Donnell, Louise McMillan, Caity Mattinson, Meryl Smith, Coreen Grant.