Women’s Six Nations: Wales 'excited' to learn delayed tournament dates
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Wales lost to Italy, Ireland, France and England in 2020 before the Women's Six Nations was cancelled
Wales women and Under-20s have welcomed the news that their respective Six Nations now have a definite date to be played, after both were delayed.
The Women's Six Nations will take place in April in a new and condensed format.
The U20's Six Nations will take place in June and July in the same format as planned but over a condensed, three-week period.
"Uncertainty has been the toughest part so this news is pretty exciting," said Wales women head coach Warren Abrahams.
The tournaments have been delayed due to travel and testing issues during the coronavirus pandemic, with many players being amateur.
Siwan Lillicrap: Wales captain 'can't wait' until re-arranged Six Nations.
The Women's Six Nations will be similar to the Autumn Nations Cup in format, with two pools of three and a Grand Final weekend.
Wales women have been placed in Pool A with France and Ireland, travelling to France on the weekend of 3 April before hosting Ireland on the weekend of 10 April.
Every nation will play a play-off match on the weekend of 24 April against the opposing ranked team from the other pool, so the teams finishing first in each pool will face each other to decide the title.
Exact fixture dates, venues and kick off times will be announced in due course.
Abrahams welcomed the announcement of fixtures. "We're really grateful to the work everyone has done to get us to this position and have some competitive fixtures to look forward to. We've all overcome different challenges to get here.
"France and Ireland are great fixtures to work towards and will provide an opportunity to measure ourselves with the Rugby World Cup coming up in September. It's very welcome news for women's rugby in the northern hemisphere."
The World Rugby U20 Championship has been cancelled for 2021 and the fixtures for the U20 Six Nations will be announced at a later date, although it is expected the opening weekend will be 19 June.
Wales U20 head coach Gareth Williams said: "It's great to learn the rearranged dates for our Six Nations campaign.
"The disruption over the last 12 months is well documented, therefore having these fixtures to look forward to as a development tool for us is exciting and critical.
"We are now able to adapt our key work with developing players in partnership with the regions, and the summer will give an invaluable period of competition to test that development."