There was a tough start to the Six Nations Women’s U18 Festival for Siwan Lillicrap’s Welsh team as they were beaten 43-0 in their opening game by France.
The 35-minute contest was the first on Day 1 for Wales at Wellington College and saw them concede seven tries without reply. They quickly recovered their poise to go on to beat Scotland 21-7 in their second outing with a completely new team.
They will face England and Italy on Tuesday before completing their Festival with a full game against Ireland on Saturday.
“We got caught cold a bit at the star against the French, who were very good. It was the first time many of the players had experienced full international level rugby and it came as a bit of a shock for some of them,” said head coach Lillicrap.
“They will learn from the experience and now understand what it takes to compete at this level. They were guilty at times of simply kicking the ball down field of the French to run back at them.
“We’d played the Scots in a warm-up fixture and done pretty well against them. We managed to win that one, but once again it wasn’t easy on a full international stage.
“There is still a lot of talent in this squad, and I think they will be better when they run out against England and Italy next week.”
There were tries against Scotland from Taufa Tuipulotu, Ciara Taylor and Cara Mercier, all of which were converted by Sienna McCormack.
Wales U18 v France: Megan Jones; Beatrice Morgan, Katie Johnson, Isla McMullen (captain), Lily Foscolo; Ffion Williams, Lily Hawkins; Crystal James, Shanelle Williams, Evie Hill, Tegan Bendall, Erin Jones, Jorja Aiono, Amelia Bailey, Chiara Pearce
Wales U18 v Scotland: Beatrice Morgan; Meg Thomas, Lily Foscolo, Sienna McCormack, Saran Jones; Kacey Morkot, Seren Lockwood; Georgia Morgan, Taufa Tuipulotu, Ciara Taylor, Cara Mercier, Izzy Jones, Abigail Richards, Chloe Roblin, Charlie Williams,