Welsh Rugby Union promises reform in women's game

Wales women have not won a game for two years

The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) says mistakes made in the women's game will be put right.

Wales women's senior team have not won since 2019 and will travel to the World Cup in New Zealand in 12 months.

WRU chairman Rob Butcher has used his address in the annual report to insist improvements will be made and errors will be rectified.

"We know there have been mistakes but we are about setting them right," said Butcher.

Wales suffered heavy 2021 Six Nations defeat against France (53-0) and Ireland (45-0) before losing 27-20 to Scotland.

This followed four defeats in the tournament the year before with the Scotland game cancelled because of the pandemic.

Head coach Warren Abrahams left his post in July 2021 by "mutual" decision less than nine months after the South African had been appointed.

This came after former Wales captain Rachel Taylor also left her role as assistant coach in March 2021 despite not being involved in a senior match.

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A group of 123 former internationals have this month said "enough is enough" after launching a petition to improve the state of women's rugby in Wales.

The petition aims to bring back performance pathways for females to play at elite level, in line with their male counterparts.

And double Olympian Jasmine Joyce says she will be forced to return to semi-professional rugby at the end of this year when her GB Sevens contract runs out.

The WRU currently has no national sevens programme in place or employs any full-time female professional players.

"It's been an incredibly tough year for Wales women and we know we don't have everything right off the pitch, to enable our senior women's side to perform on it," added Butcher.

"We know we have improvements to make, but the first step towards any solution is to identify the problem and we have measures in place to do so.

"The next step is to ensure the resources, mindset and dedicated personnel are in place to devise the way ahead and implement necessary change.

"I can assure everyone involved and with a keen interest in women's rugby that this is an area of key strategic priority for the WRU.

"We will get it right. We may take time to do so and we are acutely aware of a sense of urgency at the moment with the World Cup looming.

"We have the right people involved, from our board member and vice-chair, the highly decorated former international Liza Burgess, to our incoming new performance director Nigel Walker, to ensure we do so."

WRU chief executive Steve Phillips says an independent review has taken place conducted by Helen Phillips, Chair of Commonwealth Games Wales, Amanda Bennett, former Wales women vice-captain and Sport Wales board member and former Wales coach Kevin Bowring.

The first priority is to find Abraham's successor.

"We are currently searching for the right individual to take responsibility for the planning, implementation and delivery of the coaching programme for both the women's 15s and sevens international programmes," Phillips wrote in the annual report.

"This individual will take charge but, like Wayne, they will not be on their own. The full weight of the WRU's support is behind the female game and the results of a mid-term review are being studied to help us chart the course to a more successful future in this most important of areas of growth in our game.

"The review has provided recommendations as to how the performance women's programme can be improved in a general sense, in order to positively impact Wales Women's ability to compete at next year's World Cup.

"We look forward to analysing and implementing relevant findings from the review."

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