'It's not an excuse!' Wales coach defends comments in wake of defeats

Ioan Cunningham has defended comments he made which appeared to justify Wales Women’s disappointing run of results during their 2024 Six Nations campaign.

Cunningham and some of his players have been accused of sugar-coating Wales’ performances this year, saying they’ve come a long way since turning professional and focussing on positives in performance amid heavy defeats.

After the France game, Cunningham said: "We've still got L plates on when it comes to professionalism, people have got to understand that."

When asked whether his L plates comment was an excuse, Cunningham said: “I’m not sure it’s an excuse, I think it’s being realistic.

“If you look at it like that, they still do have their L-plates on in that they are learning what it is, dealing with robustness, the brutality of the Test arena, setbacks, tough days, good days," said Cunningham.

Wales Women became professional in 2022, the same year as Ireland and Scotland, and appeared to be progressing well last year, finishing third and qualifying for WXV1. But they have lost every match in this year's campaign, suffering a worrying 36-5 drubbing against Ireland earlier this month.

Wales have lost by over 30 points in three of their four games and were beaten 40-0 by France last weekend.

Now, ahead of their final game against Italy in the Principality Stadium tomorrow, they will be looking to avoid the wooden spoon.

Wales forward Georgia Evans added: "We've got the strongest squad we've ever had, with the strength in depth, and have everything we need to be a success.

"But it's sobering that other teams have rapidly caught us up in terms of professionalism.

"It's not that we've got worse, but we've probably taken our foot off the gas and other teams have caught up.

"But we'll be the first to hold up our hands and say we haven't done what was expected of us. Now we need to get our foot back down."

Wales are expecting a record-breaking crowd of almost 10,000, beating the previous record of 8,500 which was set when Wales played England last year at the Arms Park.

But Cunningham stressed: “We’re not letting the occasion, or the venue get the better of us.

“We’ve got a good opportunity this Saturday at the Principality to try and finish the Championship on a positive note.”

The WRU have planned to make tomorrow a festival for women and girl’s rugby, with three community finals also taking place after the Six Nations tie.

Tickets for the Six Nations match will therefore also allow spectators to watch the community finals.

Wales play Italy at 12.15pm on Saturday, with the following fixtures being played afterwards:

Women’s Bowl Final 15:00hrs – Cymry Caerdydd v Old Penarthians RFC

Women’s Plate Final 1715hrs – Bonymaen v Haverfordwest

Women’s Cup Final 19.30hrs – Llandaff North v Seven Sisters