Wales Women’s squad announcement this morning sees nine Scarlets Ladies taking part in this year’s Six Nations in the Spring.
Featuring in the forwards is; Alisha Butchers, Alex Callender, Lleucu George, Sarah Lawrence and Bethan Lewis. As well as a further four in the backs; Hannah Jones, Jasmine Joyce, Caitlin Lewis and Ffion Lewis.
Speaking on the squad selection Daryl Morgan, Scarlets Ladies Head Coach said; “I’m exceptionally proud to see so many of our players make the Wales Women’s Six Nations Squad. They all thoroughly deserve their places after all the hard work that they’ve put in through the season.
“The fantastic thing for myself and the other coaches that have been involved in the players development, is that all of the ladies selected have come through our age grade programme and this is wonderful to see.”
Horsman, Lewis and Wyatt continue in their autumn coaching roles with Rowland Phillips continuing to take time out of the programme, while former England Sevens captain Ollie Phillips has been appointed to lead the Wales Women Sevens programme.
The sevens and 15-a-side coaches are working side by side to run a fully integrated, athlete-centred sevens and 15-a-side performance programme during the Six Nations and ahead of a crucial Rugby Europe Trophy series.
Sevens is a key priority for the Wales Women performance strategy and 20 of the Six Nations squad are also in the current sevens training squad of 30 players.
Chris Horsman said, “We are pleased with the progress made during the autumn campaign, both in terms of creating fitness benchmarks and raising our performance standards. We made clear improvements in November and the togetherness shown was obvious throughout the month – from grinding out a gritty, last-minute win over Ireland to impressive performances in beating Scotland and Crawshays along with a solid second-half against a strong Barbarians side. It was just the start but the performances showed there is much more to come from this squad.
All three home Six Nations games will be played on Sunday lunchtimes at Cardiff Arms Park. Newly appointed captain Siwan Lillicrap is thrilled to lead the side and hoping to build on the support shown during the autumn campaign.
Wales v Italy – 2nd Feb 2020 – KO 13:00
Wales v France – 23rd Feb 2020 – KO 12:00
Wales v Scotland – 15th March 2020 – KO 13:10
Wales Women Six Nations squad 2020:
Forwards:
Alisha Butchers, Alex Callender, Gwen Crabb, Georgia Evans, Abbie Fleming, Cerys Hale, Lleucu George, Cara Hope, Natalia John, Manon Johnes, Kelsey Jones, Molly Kelly, Sarah Lawrence, Bethan Lewis, Ruth Lewis, Siwan Lillicrap, Robyn Lock, Gwenllian Pyrs
Backs:
Keira Bevan, Hannah Bluck, Hannah Jones, Jasmine Joyce, Courtney Keight, Kerin Lake, Caitlin Lewis, Ffion Lewis, Lisa Neumann, Kayleigh Powell, Paige Randall, Lauren Smyth, Elinor Snowsill, Niamh Terry, Megan Webb, Robyn Wilkins