Ioan Cunningham Under Pressure But Questions WRU Strategy For Women’s Game

Aoibheann Reilly of Ireland makes a break during their convincing win over Wales. Pic: Getty Images

Ioan Cunningham Under Pressure But Questions WRU Strategy For Women’s Game

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By Paul Jones

Ioan Cunningham expects scrutiny over his position as head coach after Wales glued themselves to the bottom of the Women’s Six Nations table.

Like his counterpart in charge of the men’s team – Warren Gatland – Cunningham is a man under pressure who cannot ease things until he stops losing.

The former Scarlets coach, who brought a sharp upturn in the fortunes of the national side in the women’s game two years ago, admits results have put him in the firing line.

Six defeats in a row have been suffered – the latest a harrowing 36-5 setback to Ireland – mirroring Gatland’s wretched recent record.

If anything, the decline in the women’s team has been far more abrupt than the men’s team as only a year ago Wales looked a far stronger team than Ireland and beat them 31-5 in Cardiff.

“I think I’m the right person to lead this team, obviously there will be other people who can make those decisions, but in the cold light of day I think we have to be honest with each other,” said Cunningham.

“Sometimes these things humble you. We were beaten by the better team.

“We’ve done really well up to a point, but we need to look a bit deeper at where we can really make changes. We know that other teams are improving.

“I think this is a real opportunity for us to reflect hard, but credit to Ireland.”

Gwen Hopkins marked her senior Wales debut with a try to provide Cunningham with the only bright spot in a sobering defeat in Cork.

There was a whiff of revenge in the air at Musgrave Park after Wales had posted a 31-5 win over the girls in green at the Arms Park last year – Ireland’s worst beating by Wales in 20 years. This time the roles were reversed.

“On the surface of it, we’re going through a bit of transition with the playing group,” said Cunningham.

“Players that have had a lot of experience have retired – Elinor Snowsill, Sioned Harries, Caryl Thomas – but we’re seeing green shoots of amazing young talent like Gwennan Hopkins and Sian Jones.

“There’s also other things that we need to get right in our game, it’s probably more to do with how we cope with pressure, performing and delivering on the big stage, rather than technical, tactical or physical.”

One change Cunningham insists should happen is in direct contradiction to the view of his bosses at the Welsh Rugby Union.

Senior figures at the WRU believe Wales can build a successful national team without any kind of meaningful domestic league.

Their vision is for the best women’s players in Wales to play in England – thereby saving money in Wales, which they can use to fund the national team, rather than a national league.

Cunningham disputes that view as unsustainable and said:  “I think we’ve reached a point now where there is so much good talent coming through in Wales and we’ve got nowhere for them to play, and that is something that we’ve got to seriously look at.

“Playing at under-20s level is brilliant, but then where do they play after that?

“The Celtic Challenge is only a short window and for us to get into that top five in the world we have got to have a domestic competition that provides high-quality rugby for our players.

“It’s a long-term thing, it’s not going to happen overnight. There are players like Sian Jones, Gwennan Hopkins, Molly Reardon, where are they going to play?

“A big shift needs to happen for us to have the quality players playing regularly, as well as players that are performing well in the PWR, suddenly everything rises.”

 

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