Wales take on one of the toughest challenges in women’s rugby starting with Canada on Saturday in the inaugural WXV tournament in New Zealand.
After that, games follow against hosts New Zealand and Australia.
But while Ioan Cunningham’s squad can ponder the certainty of the uncompromising encounters to come, there is only uncertainty for six senior caps when the tournament is over.
Those half-dozen, including injured Ffion Lewis and Natalia John and current Wales squad members Carys Phillips, Alex Callender, Hannah Bluck and Carys Cox, will be without a club when they get home with Worcester Warriors Women having gone the way of the men’s team into rugby oblivion.
Wales number eight Sioned Harries left Sixways after five seasons at the end of 2022-23 and “can only imagine how upsetting the experience is” for her former club-mates and current fellow Wales squad members.
Harries, 33, feels the time is now right for the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) to seize the initiative and set up a team in Wales while accepting there are hurdles to negotiate.
“My main concern at the moment is, I see the (Worcester) Welsh girls knowing after this competition they don’t have a club to go to after,” she told the Scrum V podcast.
“It just puts emphasis on the fact that there needs to be… it’s a call now, that there needs to be a professional club in Wales.”
But that would beg the question of what competition would such a team play in, especially if it is not in the English Premier 15s from which Worcester have been forced to withdraw.
The vast majority of Wales’ leading players are based in England and ex-Wales captain Harries acknowledges: “If you look at the other clubs the Welsh girls are playing at, they’ve [the clubs] probably met their salary cap, they’ve done their recruitment for the season, so you’re just hoping now that people are going to take care of these girls.
“It is going to be tough for the girls, like I say we’re all supporting them… they’re all professional enough their focus is on this (WXV) championship, but like I said I think support needs to be put in place now following this campaign, to make sure they have a club to go to.
“I think more needs to be done in Wales if I’m honest – I think it’s not a matter of getting England to do your homework and putting your name on it.
“Wales need to step up and do something now and offer these girls a club to play for – or some sort of professional outfit so that you don’t have to go over the bridge to play for your country, you can play for somewhere in Wales.
Leave a Reply