Posted by It’s been a real mixed bag for Cymru across the opening two rounds of the Guinness Six Nations, as Ioan Cunningham’s side look to find the perfect formula for winning games.
After an encouraging two years of burgeoning professionalism across the game in Wales, the landscape of women’s rugby in Europe has changed again with the Scots and the Irish both working to upgrade their high performance programme, Italy continue to build and the gap to certainly France, and possibly England, begins to close.
Cymru have benefitted from being ahead of the curve slightly in the chasing pack, earning some positive results along the way, but after years of neglect prior to that the national team and development pathways still have a long way to go before they can be seen as out of “transition”.
This year that is being seen particularly at fly-half where the inability to develop any succession planning after the retirement of Elinor Snowsill has seen Lleucu George thrust into the 10 jersey. That’s not to say George is a downgrade or a poor player but she’s very different from Snowsill attribute-wise, and with Snowsill having been a mainstay for so long there was not the chance to manage the crossover effectively.
As a result Cunningham and his coaching staff are somewhat learning as they go around how to play with George at 10. Across the defeats to Scotland and England there has been an average of 49.5% possession and 51% territory for the women in red, but that has translated into just four line breaks in total. The Scots made five, while the English made a massive 15.
Particularly against England there were some of Cymru’s best spells of ball retention and attacking shape produced against the Red Roses probably since I’ve properly been watching women’s rugby over the last five-to-six years, but we just could not turn that into try scoring opportunities.
It’s a shame because there has been plenty to like so far in the defensive breakdown, the set piece has been particularly solid and put England’s throw under a lot of pressure on Saturday, and discipline has noticeably improved from the Autumn’s WXV series. These are excellent bases on which to build a very competitive side.
That attack will need to develop a cutting edge over the fallow week though, as the round three clash with Ireland is now a must-win for both sides in the hunt for third and searching for their first win of the Championship, as well as qualifying for WXV1 and the Rugby World Cup.
If Cymru fail to earn the victory in Cork then it will be a case of firmly being pulled back into the chasing pack, rather than looking up at the elite teams in the women’s game. Not a backwards step as such, but certainly a plateauing of this side’s progress, and leaving two tough games against France and Italy to avoid a wooden spoon.
Win at Musgrave Park though and suddenly there’s momentum to take back to Cardiff for two big home clashes, one at the Arms Park and a Super Saturday showdown at the Principality Stadium.
Whether it be via personnel changes; retaining the physicality of Kate Williams or adding a Gwennan Hopkins to the back row, welcoming back Keira Bevan, Jasmine Joyce and Kayleigh Powell to the back line, or refreshing the centre pairing, or tactical changes to increase the variation off 9 and looking to get tip-ons and offloads away, something needs altering in that attack.
Unlock the potential the squad has, alongside developing the kicking game around Lleucu George, and a win is more than achievable away at Ireland. Ymlaen Cymru!
Cardiff Rugby Life 