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Wales women's national rugby union team

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For the men's team, see Wales national rugby union team. For the women's sevens team, see Wales women's national rugby sevens team.

Wales
Shirt badge/Association crest
EmblemThe Prince of Wales's feathers
UnionWelsh Rugby Union
Head coachIoan Cunningham
CaptainSiwan Lillicrap
First colours
Second colours
World Rugby ranking
Current9 (as of 4 October 2022)
First international
 Wales 4–22 England 
(Pontypool, Wales 5 April 1987)
Biggest win
 Wales 77–0 Germany 
(Barcelona, Spain 17 May 2002)
Biggest defeat
 England 83–11 Wales 
(Swansea, Wales 10 April 1999)
World Cup
Appearances6 (First in 1991)
Best result4th place, 1994
Women's
World Rugby Rankings
Top 20 rankings as of 25 November 2024[1]
Rank Change* Team Points
1 Steady  England 097.56
2 Steady  Canada 089.31
3 Steady  New Zealand 088.64
4 Steady  France 085.11
5 Steady  Australia 078.10
6 Steady  Ireland 078.03
7 Steady  Scotland 076.82
8 Steady  Italy 074.75
9 Steady  United States 074.20
10 Steady  Wales 072.58
11 Steady  Japan 066.41
12 Steady  South Africa 066.18
13 Steady  Spain 065.42
14 Steady  Russia 061.10
15 Steady  Samoa 060.56
16 Steady  Netherlands 060.20
17 Steady  Fiji 059.14
18 Steady  Hong Kong 056.20
19 Steady  Kazakhstan 055.23
20 Steady  Sweden 052.72
*Change from the previous week

The Wales women's national rugby union team first played in 1987. Wales plays in the Women's Rugby World Cup and the Women's Six Nations Championship

History

Wales Women have played as a team officially since 5 April 1987 when a Wales Women team, led by Liza Burgess, took on an England Women side at Pontypool Park.[2] Prior to 1987, Welsh players were selected to represent Great Britain with the first representative side featuring players from Wales running against France at Richmond Athletic Ground in 1986. Great Britain played as a team on several occasions until 1990, beating Italy in their final match. Wales have played England every year since 1987.

Wales hosted the first Women's Rugby World Cup in Cardiff in 1991 and since then they have participated in a further four of the five tournaments finishing fourth in 1994, their highest ever finish.[3] The IRB adopted the competition in 1998, which was won by the New Zealand Black Ferns who also won the tournaments in Barcelona in 2002 Edmonton, Canada in 2006.

The Welsh Women's Rugby Union was created in 1994 charged with promoting and governing the development and practice of Women's Rugby in Wales; the other three home unions also took charge of their own administration effectively ending the function of the WRFU in the process. The WWRU also became affiliated to the Welsh Rugby Union at the same time.

The creation of four separate home unions for Women's Rugby in Great Britain also saw the introduction of the Women's Home Nations competition with the first set of internationals taking place in 1995. Wales Women's early years in the tournament saw victories only against Ireland Women . Wales Women also remain the only touring team from Wales to have won a Test series in South Africa, beating the Bokkies by two Test to nil back in 1994.

From 2004 to 2006 a policy of selecting only players based in Wales resulted in a series of poor results – and failure to qualify for the 2006 World Cup. When the policy was reversed the team immediately recorded their best Six Nations performance, with a victory over France in 2006, wins over Scotland in 2006 & 2007, ending a ten-year drought of wins against their Celtic opponents, and culminating with victory over England in 2009 on their way to a Triple Crown. The National 7s squad lifted the European 7s title in 2006, beating England in the final but narrowly failed to secure a place in the 2009 Rugby World Cup 7s. In 2007 Wales also re-entered the FIRA Championship, using the tournament to give tournament experience to its development team.

In November 2021, the Welsh Rugby Union announced that they would be offering 12-month contracts to Wales Women for the first time in its history. The contracts take effect on January 1, 2022.[4]

Players

Current squad

Wales named their final 32-player squad on the 21 September 2022, for the 2021 Rugby World Cup.[5]

Player Position Caps Club/Province
Kayleigh Powell Full-back 11 Bristol Bears
Jasmine Joyce Wing 27 Bristol Bears
Lisa Neumann Wing 27 Gloucester-Hartpury
Lleucu George Centre 10 Gloucester-Hartpury
Hannah Jones (vc) Centre 39 Gloucester-Hartpury
Kerin Lake Centre 38 Gloucester-Hartpury
Lowri Norkett Centre 2 Worcester Warriors
Megan Webb Centre 9 Bristol Bears
Carys Williams-Morris Centre 2 Loughborough Lightning
Elinor Snowsill Fly-half 67 Bristol Bears
Niamh Terry Fly-half 7 Worcester Warriors
Robyn Wilkins Fly-half 59 Exeter Chiefs
Keira Bevan Scrum-half 44 Bristol Bears
Ffion Lewis Scrum-half 24 Worcester Warriors
Kat Evans Hooker 3 Saracens
Kelsey Jones Hooker 14 Gloucester-Hartpury
Carys Phillips Hooker 60 Worcester Warriors
Cerys Hale Prop 40 Gloucester-Hartpury
Cara Hope Prop 21 Gloucester-Hartpury
Gwenllian Pyrs Prop 21 Bristol Bears
Donna Rose Prop 12 Saracens
Caryl Thomas Prop 60 Worcester Warriors
Sisilia Tuipulotu Prop 4 Gloucester-Hartpury
Gwen Crabb Lock 25 Gloucester-Hartpury
Georgia Evans Lock 12 Saracens
Natalia John Lock 29 Worcester Warriors
Alisha Butchers Back row 38 Bristol Bears
Alex Callender Back row 19 Worcester Warriors
Abbie Fleming Back row 4 Exeter Chiefs
Sioned Harries Back row 65 Worcester Warriors
Bethan Lewis Back row 29 Gloucester-Hartpury
Siwan Lillicrap (c) Back row 47 Gloucester-Hartpury

Previous squads

Notable players

Records

World Cup

Rugby World Cup
Year Round Position GP W D L PF PA
Wales 1991 Plate quarter-finals N/A 3 0 1 2 18 39
Scotland 1994 3rd Place Playoff 4th 5 3 0 2 63 96
Netherlands 1998 11th Place Playoff 11th 5 3 0 2 181 75
Spain 2002 9th Place Playoff 10th 4 2 0 2 126 50
Canada 2006 Did not participate
England 2010 9th Place Playoff 9th 5 2 0 3 91 109
France 2014 7th Place Playoff 8th 5 1 0 4 48 147
Ireland 2017 7th Place Playoff 7th 5 2 0 3 78 143
New Zealand 2021 Quarter-final — 4 1 0 3 40 139
England 2025 Qualified
Australia 2029 TBD
United States 2033
Total 8/9 4th 36 14 1 21 645 798
  Champions    Runners-up    Third place    Fourth place Home venue

Overall

See also: List of Wales women's national rugby union team matches

(Full internationals only)
Correct as of 13 November 2021

Rugby: Wales internationals 1987–
Opponent First game Played Won Drawn Lost Percentage
 Australia 2002 4 0 0 4 0.00%
 Canada 1991 11 2 2 7 18.18%
 England 1987 37 2 0 35 5.41%
 France 1994 27 4 0 23 14.81%
 Germany 1998 2 2 0 0 100.00%
 Hong Kong 2017 2 2 0 0 100.00%
 Japan 2017 2 1 0 1 50.00%
 Ireland 1996 28 15 0 13 53.57%
 Italy 1998 20 12 1 7 60.00%
 Kazakhstan 1994 5 3 0 2 60.00%
 Netherlands 1988 5 2 0 3 40.00%
 New Zealand 1991 4 0 0 4 0.00%
 Russia 1998 2 2 0 0 100.00%
 Samoa 2002 1 0 0 1 0.00%
 Scotland 1993 33 18 0 15 54.55%
 South Africa 2004 8 6 0 2 75.00%
 Spain 1991 11 4 0 7 36.36%
 Sweden 2007 3 2 0 1 66.67%
 United States 1993 4 0 0 4 0.00%
Summary 1987 219 73 3 134 33.33%

References

  1. ^ "Women's World Rankings". World Rugby. Retrieved 25 November 2024.
  2. ^ "Historic day for England Women's Rugby". rfu.com. 5 April 2012. Archived from the original on 9 July 2013. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
  3. ^ "Women's Rugby World Cup". RugbyFootballHistory.com. p. 1. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
  4. ^ Southcombe, Matthew (3 November 2021). "Wales Women to be offered professional contracts for the first time". WalesOnline. Retrieved 21 November 2021.
  5. ^ "Wales Rugby World Cup squad named - Welsh Rugby Union". Welsh Rugby Union | Wales & Regions. 21 September 2022. Retrieved 22 September 2022.
  6. ^ "Liza Burgess: "The sky's the limit for women's rugby"". www.world.rugby. 20 September 2018. Retrieved 29 June 2022.
  7. ^ "World Rugby - Hall of Fame". www.world.rugby. Retrieved 29 June 2022.
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