Hannah Jones and Sean Lynn are both on the same page when it comes to assessing the good that can come from their Wales Women’s team facing England in the Guinness Six Nations at Principality Stadium. “We want to go out and be brave and try to inspire a nation,” is the joint rallying call […]
Hannah Jones and Sean Lynn are both on the same page when it comes to assessing the good that can come from their Wales Women’s team facing England in the Guinness Six Nations at Principality Stadium.
“We want to go out and be brave and try to inspire a nation,” is the joint rallying call from captain and coach.
It may be a decade since Wales last beat England, and the Red Roses may be the No 1 ranked team in the world with 31 successive Six Nations triumphs behind them, but all is not lost.
Jones has intimate knowledge of what it takes to bring down the world leaders. She may only have been 18 at the time, but she was a travelling reserve for Wales back in 2015 when the team captained by Rachel Taylor beat the auld enemy 13-0 at Swansea’s St Helen’s ground.
Current hooker Carys Phillips started on that great day, while this weekend’s scrum half Keira Bevan was on the bench.
“That day inspired me,” admitted Jones, “and now we want to go out and try to do the same at Principality Stadium.
“It was a brilliant game, a good day. I can still see the cross field kick that brought a try for Wales.
“Those players in the past are the ones who created the opportunities for us today. We are thankful for the way they pushed through and changed things for us both on and off the field.
“Now it’s down to us to keep that going and to make them proud as well. We’ve got the opportunity to be full time players and we are going to thrive on that.
“We’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain and we will feed off the energy of the record crowd. The big thing is to enjoy the occasion and focus on ourselves because once we get out processes right and we are in the opposition 22 we are dangerous.
“We know England are the No 1 team in the world but some of our players have beaten them before. We play with and against their players’ week in, week out in the Professional Women’s Rugby League and many of them are our friends.
“But there will be no friends on the pitch – we’ll catch up afterwards. Starting fast is key and then building on the momentum we create.”
The England head coach John Mitchell has made 13 changes to the side that beat Italy in Round 1. Harlequins full back Ellie Kildunne will earn her 50th international cap and there are five players from new Wales head coach Lynn’s former club, Gloucester-Hartpury in the squad.