By Hannah Blackwell
Caryl Thomas bid farewell to rugby following her side’s 36-10 win against Italy in the final round of the 2023 TikTok Women’s Six Nations.
Thomas re-joined her team just two weeks after her wife gave birth to their daughter and helped secure Wales’ best place finish in the Championship in 14 years.
She won 65 caps for her country in a career spanning 17 years and closed the doors on her international career coming off the bench against Italy for her swan song.
“I’m a bit sad that I’m leaving in some ways because I want to keep going, but my body says no,” said Thomas.
“It’s been amazing to be able to retire on your own terms, and to get a win and a performance like that is huge and shows how much we’re progressing.”
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Wales finished third in the 2023 TikTok Women’s Six Nations, picking up their first victory over Italy in six years in Round 5.
Bethan Lewis, Sisilia Tuipulotu, Sioned Harries, Alex Callender, and Kerin Lake all scored for Wales as Keira Bevan’s boot added the extras.
“That’s what you want, you want to leave the shirt in a better place and have people pushing on,” said Thomas, thrilled with the prospect that Wales will only continue to rise up the ranks following her retirement.
“I am so chuffed for them, they are amazing players and I’m excited for their future.”
Player of the Match Callender was overjoyed by her team’s performance in Parma and wasted no time in looking ahead to their next target: the World XV.
“We made it hard work but we stuck to our process throughout the whole 80 minutes,” said Callender.
“The World XV is a testament and will test us as a team, we want to be playing against the best teams in the world that is how we are going to get better if we challenge ourselves against the top teams like England France and New Zealand: I’m so excited for that challenge.”
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Wales head coach Ioan Cunningham said: “It was a great game, credit to Italy, they threw everything at us.
“I am so proud of our team, how they managed that arm wrestle and came out the other side.
“It was always going to be a challenge, but I think we have shown growth and development to come out here and get those five tries.”
“I’m very pleased, [scoring more tries] was one target that we wanted to do after the World Cup.
“We have grown as a group and evolved our game, the challenge now is to compete with England and France for 60, 70, 80 minutes.”
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