Wales prepare for Canada showdown It’s a big occasion for the Welsh skipper, Hannah Jones. As she leads her team out for their first ever dip in WXV waters, she celebrates her 50th cap. A first cap at the age of 16 shows how an early talent has developed to this high level. Ioan Cunningham
Jay Tregonning has not been afraid to experiment with the 23 he’s selected to face England on Friday 20 October. The Squad: 1 *Brianna Hoy (NSW Waratahs), 2 Tania Naden (ACT Brumbies, 6 caps), 3 Eva Karpani (NSW Waratahs, 17), 4 Michaela Leonard (captain, Western Force, 18), 5 Annabelle Codey (Queensland Reds, 4), 6 Siokapesi
We should have expected it, but we didn’t. This French squad to face the Black Ferns is far from what most people might have expected. How many French fans got it right? The squad: 15 Morgane Bourgeois (Stade Bordelais), 14 Cyrielle Banet (Montpellier HR), 13 Marine Ménager (Montpellier HR), 12 Gabrielle Vernier (Blagnac), 11 Émilie Boulard
First things first. This is not the 23 we can expect Louis Deacon to send out against France or New Zealand over the following two weekends, (see below). As usual the official announcement avoids any mention of possible niggles or longer term injuries, so we have to assume it is an open selection based on
The world’s leading women’s rugby players were officially welcomed to Aotearoa New Zealand today for the inaugural WXV 1 tournament, set to kick off in Wellington this weekend. Players from England, France, Wales, Canada, Australia and host country New Zealand were among the guests welcomed by local iwi Te Atiawa with a traditional pōwhiri at
The biggest drama still awaits. The three best rugby sides in the world will compete over the next three weekends. It’s only a year since they met up at the World Cup. A reminder: after thrashing Wales 55-3 in their quarter-final New Zealand scraped home by a combined four points against France then England. England
How does WXV look after one weekend? Here are a few pointers. Safety ‘Smart mouthguards for all’. All the more necessary as less experienced players infringe. The greater the disparity in team skills, the greater the difference in the speed of play. Consequence: higher likelihood of tackles arriving late or poorly targeted. Fortunately, the number
If ever a game proved the worth of the WXV concept, this was it. Opposites met; the large versus the small (only in the geographical sense); the highest (7th) versus the lowest (15th) in world rankings. A final gap of only ten points showed how the competition is opening new horizons. Though the Eagles haven’t
The first-day results: Colombia 13 Fiji 67; Ireland 109 Kazakhstan 0 These runaway victories simply had to be expected. We have seen similar margins at many a World Cup of the past, and they involved far fewer nations than the eighteen contesting this brand-new WXV. The disparities were shown most clearly in that second game.
The sides had met four times in the 2010s, twice in Scotland, twice in South Africa. Curiously, all four resulted in away wins. In the run-up to WXV the Boks played lots of warm-ups, Scotland very few. We would see which approach was sensible. For much of the first half the Bok pack controlled events.
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