Belief is beginning to build - Phillips

ROWLAND Phillips has made a perfect start to his tenure as Wales women head coach, but he is fully aware his side needs to improve if they want to challenge in the Six Nations.

With the World Cup in Ireland next summer in mind, the former London Welsh boss took over from Rhys Edwards and he has had an instant impact with four wins in four games.

The last one came last Sunday against Ireland, but they had to come from behind to clinch a 22-14 warm-up win giving Phillips plenty of food for thought.

“We can’t hide away from the fact that we’ve had a pretty good start of the season but we’re not going to get carried away,” he told TRP.

“There is so much more improvement to come from this group of players so we’re not going to sit back and be complacent because we’ve achieved nothing yet.

“The game against Ireland last week was a massive step up and we struggled. We were behind at half-time but luckily we managed to get up to speed with the pace of the game and won.

“The main thing for us is to push the belief the players have in their abilities. There’s a lot of work to do but we’re looking forward to what is going to be a big year.

“The next six weeks will give us a good platform to work from ahead of the World Cup where we’ll play New Zealand and Canada in the pools.

“But we’re not taking the Six Nations as a warmup. It deserves our upmost respect and we’ll go in there looking to do our best against the best nations in the world.”

Most of the Welsh players ply their trade in the English Premiership but Phillips is hoping more success will help him in his bid to develop the club game across the Severn.

He added: “We’ve changed the structure of the women’s game in Wales and ideally we’ll have our best players playing in Wales in the future.

“We’ve got to be improving and be successful for us to grow the game and maybe one day go professional like England.”