Wales ring changes ahead of French test
WALES have made seven changes to face France tomorrow night in their penultimate Women’s Six Nations clash at Cardiff Arms Park (8pm).
Head coach Ioan Cunningham has made five personnel changes and two positional switches for the round-four meeting with semi-professional outfit France, who are second in the table and level on points with reigning champions England.
Tighthead prop Cerys Hale and lock Natalia John return to the starting line-up and Beth Lewis is handed her first start of the campaign at openside flanker, seeing Alisha Butchers return to the blindside.
Captain Siwan Lillicrap completes the back-row at No. 8, with Sioned Harries settling for a place on the bench after starting at the back of the scrum against England last time out.
Gwen Crabb partners John in the second row and prop Gwenllian Pyrs and hooker Carys Phillips complete the front row.
In the backs, Keira Bevan and Elinor Snowsill come back in to start at half-back with fly-half Robyn Wilkins shifting to inside centre as Kerin Lake moves to the bench.
Exeter Chiefs utility back Niamh Terry joins the matchday 23 and will add to her four caps if she comes off the bench. Kelsey Jones, Cara Hope, Donna Rose and Alex Callender complete the forward cover on the bench, while Ffion Lewis is the scrum-half cover.
Sisilia Tuipulotu is absent from the matchday 23 for the first time this Six Nations.
Wales have won two of their three Six Nations matches so far, coming from behind to stun Ireland and then Scotland before losing heavily 58-5 to powerhouses England last time out. Ten of Wales’s full-time professionals are in the starting XV.
Wales boss Cunningham said: “We took a lot of learnings from the England Test. We’ve had a good two weeks’ build-up to this game and we’re excited to kick on.
“One of the learnings was how we dealt with the occasion at Kingsholm and we are looking forward to returning home to Cardiff Arms Park.
WA big home crowd on Friday night will give the players a real boost, hopefully we can start well and put in a good performance.
“France are one of the top three teams in the world, they have powerful runners and attacking options all over the pitch that will certainly test us.
“We need to be ready to take all our own attacking opportunities and our selection behind the scrum reflects that.
“We have looked at combinations that will hopefully give us some additional attacking options and help get the ball to our outside backs.
“In the forwards, Cerys Hale did well when she came on against England and Beth deserves a chance to start having trained very well and made an impact when she’s come on.
“Natalia has been a key player all season. Alex Callender and Sioned Harries will have different roles this week and Sisilia misses out this time but we are very much excited by her progress including her performance against England.”
Tickets for Wales’s home games against France tomorrow (8pm) and Italy on Saturday, April 30 (noon kick-off) are available now.
Wales: 15. Kayleigh Powell, 14. Lisa Neumann, 13. Hannah Jones, 12. Robyn Wilkins, 11. Jasmine Joyce, 10. Elinor Snowsill, 9. Keira Bevan, 1. Gwenllian Pyrs, 2. Carys Phillips, 3. Cerys Hale, 4. Natalia John, 5. Gwen Crabb, 6. Alisha Butchers, 7. Bethan Lewis, 8. Siwan Lillicrap (capt). Replacements: 16. Kelsey Jones, 17. Cara Hope, 18. Donna Rose, 19. Alex Callender, 20. Sioned Harries, 21. Ffion Lewis, 22. Kerin Lake, 23. Niamh Terry.