When you ask someone to identify the great Welsh nurseries you get the usual answers – Llandovery College, Brynteg Comprehensive, Christ College, Brecon, Glantaf, Coleg y Cymoedd and Coleg Sir Gar.
Then you have community clubs like Trebanos, Gorseinon or Beddau. But that’s largely on the men’s side of the coin.
When it comes to the women’s game, nobody does it better than Nant Conwy, the community rugby club nestled between the market town of Llanrwst and the village of Trefriw in the Conwy Valley.
As the Wales Women prepare for their latest international tournament, WXV, there are now fewer than four players from the north Wales club in the Welsh camp – Branwen and Nel Metcalfe, and Gwenllian and Alaw Pyrs.
But the club’s success in producing international players began well before the awesome foursome joined forces. Dyddgu Hywel won 31 caps, while Erin Jones, Elan Pyrs Jones and Cara Wyn have all represented Wales at youth level.
The club’s transformation from having just a handful of female participants to nurturing international stars demonstrates the impact of strategic investment in grassroots women’s rugby. National Lottery funding has also helped the club develop girls’ teams from U8 through to U18, creating the infrastructure and pathways that enabled their remarkable success.
Nant Conwy has become one of the hot spots for women’s rugby in Wales and everyone is predicting many more caps for the sisters before they hand up their boots. They face three tough games in WXV against teams ranked higher than them in the World Rugby Rankings.
It all starts tonight with the clash with South Africa. Next week the USA will be in town, while the final assignment will be in Japan. For back five star in the making, Branwen Metcalfe, it will be a third major tournament in the space of a year after the former Wales U20 captain was thrust into the senior limelight ahead of last year’s World Cup.
“I’m really excited for what’s coming up and it’ll be my third big tournament if I get to play. We’ve really been building over pre-season, so we’re looking to get some good wins,” said Branwen.
“Everyone’s been working really hard through pre-season, and our S&C coaches have been really pushing us. Sean Lynn (head coach) keeps talking to us about ‘moving the dial’, and I think we’re trying to build that through every session we have – we’re trying to make it better than the last one.
“We talk about going to that dark place and enjoy being in there. As a squad, we’ve come to enjoy being in there now.”
The darkest place for Welsh Women’s rugby recently was dropping to an all-time low of 13th in the World Rugby Rankings following Fiji’s narrow win over Japan. That means all three teams Wales will face in WXV are ranked above them – South Africa 10th, USA 8th and Japan 11th.
“We all know what South Africa are going to bring with them, so we’ve been working on a bit of previewing. We know what we’re going to bring to counteract that,” said Bronwen.
“It’s going to be a real challenge, but whatever team we play it’s going to be a challenge at this level. I’m confident in our team, confident in our squad.
“We’ve just been building under our new coaching staff, and I’m really confident that we can get some wins. Pre-season for us has been a big focus on working hard for the full 80 minutes.
“In the Six Nations, we were getting to about 60. There’s been a big push on that, and I think against South Africa, we’ll be really looking to show everyone how hard we’ve been working.
“The win over the Barbarians in the summer doesn’t relieve the pressure on us. We know we haven’t been good enough and one win doesn’t change that.
“We know that we still need to be better, and we’re looking to win all these games. We want 80-minute performances, we want to be physical, be fast, and to score lots of points.
“We know where we are as a squad and we know where we need to get to. We know we haven’t been good enough, but we can’t dwell on that, so we are just building to try to get some wins.
“We’ve got a strong, young and exciting squad with loads of new players. I’m hoping we can just show the public that we are Wales – we’re not just here to stay at 13th, we want to push and get up into the top five.”
Training every day with the best women’s rugby players in Wales as a fully professional player may seem light years away from turning up at Nant Conwy just for the fun of it, but Branwen never forgets her roots.
“Growing up Nel and I were probably at the club every day. The club has been such a big part of, not just our journey, but our whole family,” said Branwen.
Nel concurs, adding: “It’s not just a club, it’s the whole community. They are always so supportive of us whatever we do. “It’s just everything about Nant, it’s not just a club, it’s the whole community, everyone knows each other.”