Rowland Phillips will make changes to his Wales women’s team to face Hong Kong, despite their convincing weekend win over South Africa.
The Wales coach saw his side dominate the South Africans and emerge 19-5 winners, but he now wants to see who else in his extended squad of 45 is up to the task of Test rugby.
“We’ll assess our injuries, but there will be changes (against Hong Kong) as I need to know which players can cope with the intensity of international rugby,” said Phillips.
“The way the girls defended was satisfying, but the frustration was that we left a lot of opportunities on the pitch. They didn’t stop coming and we had to dig deep in defence.”
Wales now face two of their 2017 Rugby World Cup opponents, Hong Kong, whom they beat 39-15, and Canada, who beat Wales twice at that tournament, 15-0 and 52-0.
“Hong Kong play fast, they want to get it in and out of the scrums and play with high tempo, while Canada are quite similar to South Africa, running straight with a physical approach, but a lot more experience. Two different challenges, but that’s what makes the autumn series exciting.”
Wales crossed for three tries with Jasmine Joyce, Sioned Harries and Carys Phillips all scoring, while Robyn Wilkins kicked four points. All South Africa could muster was one try courtesy of Lusanda Dumke.
