Bears septet named in Wales squad to face Scotland

The side beat Ireland 27-19 last Saturday and Cunningham believes that side fully deserves the chance to go again at home this weekend.

He said: “The selection certainly rewards the team’s performance last weekend. Those players deserve another chance to perform and express themselves in front of their family, friends, and a big home crowd on Saturday. We saw some huge performances across the park from Donna Rose’s two tries to Hannah Jones’ score that finished off the game and Alisha Butchers winning Player of the Round.

“We want to grow some consistency within combinations and we will be challenging those players to  back up last week’s performance with one eye on how we will need to prepare during the Rugby World Cup.

“We are in no way underestimating Scotland. They are a tough team and have grown cohesion having spent a lot of time together during their campaign to qualify for the world cup. Their score line against England didn’t reflect their performance and they will come down looking to bounce back.

“We are expecting a tough challenge but one we are looking forward to.

“There is always room for improvement. We were pleased with our improved discipline compared to the autumn but we want to keep getting better in that area. We also want to finish strongly again – and that needs a real intensity, both physically and mentally, something we showed last Saturday.

“We’d love to have a really big crowd to get behind the team, that would be awesome, it would give the players a real boost. And we want to produce a performance that inspires the next generation.”

Wales Women v Scotland Women (Sat, 2 April 4.45pm)

15 Kayleigh Powell
14 Lisa Neumann
13 Hannah Jones
12 Kerin Lake
11 Jasmine Joyce
10 Elinor Snowsill
9 Keira Bevan
1 Gwenllian Pyrs
2 Carys Phillips
3 Cerys Hale
4 Natalia John
5 Gwen Crabb
6 Alisha Butchers
7 Alex Callender
8 Siwan Lillicrap (capt)

Replacements:

16 Kelsey Jones
17 Cara Hope
18 Donna Rose
19 Sioned Harries
20 Bethan Lewis
21 Ffion Lewis
22 Robyn Wilkins
23 Sisilia Tuipulotu