By Hannah Blackwell
Wales coach Ioan Cunningham has told his players they have nothing to lose ahead of their clash against World Cup hosts New Zealand.
With one victory already in the bag, Wales are already well on their way to making the knockout stages of the tournament.
But no Welsh senior team – male or female – has ever beaten New Zealand on their own soil and Cunningham has urged his players to seize the chance to be history-makers.
“As a squad we have spoken about embracing this challenge,” said Cunningham.
“It’s a great opportunity to express ourselves. We’re playing New Zealand in their home world cup, we’re both on the back of wins, so it’s all about this game now.
“We have nothing to lose but you have to be brave against any New Zealand team, you have to go for it, score tries, we can’t hold back, we have to go for it. Australia showed you can create opportunities and we need to do that too.”
Cunningham has made four changes to his starting line-up for his side’s second game of the tournament on Sunday, against the Black Ferns, who are second favourites to lift the trophy behind England.
Ice. Cold.
We need to review @keirabevan14 penalty#RWC2021 pic.twitter.com/f2rtsQiteW
— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) October 12, 2022
On the back of last weekend’s victory over Scotland, he has selected an unchanged backline, while up front, Bethan Lewis, Siwan Lillicrap, Gwen Crabb and Kelsey Jones come into the forward pack,
Lillicrap resumes the captaincy of the side with Hannah Jones becoming vice-captain.
Cunningham added: “You’ve got to keep some momentum and consistency. I thought Meg Webb did extremely well on Sunday, she deserves another opportunity as do the rest of the backs.
“We wanted to bring the experience of our captain in at lock. Unfortunately, we have lost Alisha Butchers to injury so we wanted to utilise Gwen Crabb’s extra strength at 6.
The Black Ferns are sticking with some creative methods in a bid to iron out the kinks from their Rugby World Cup opener.
A nervy start in front of a world record home crowd forced New Zealand to come from behind in their first-up win over Australia.https://t.co/S9ZLDgOHzq
— Morning Report (@NZMorningReport) October 13, 2022
“Bethan Lewis has been pushing Alex Callender in training and deserves a start. Carys Phillips has picked up a slight ankle injury so it’s a chance for Kelsey to start and for Kat to come off the bench.”
Kerin Lake will take up a place on the bench after returning to fitness after missing the warm-up matches in August and September.
“It’s great to see Kerin back involved along with Sisilia (Tuipulotu) and Abbie (Fleming) on the bench, it will be good to see them go.
“We started well against Scotland, scored two tries up but created more scoring opportunities, we probably left two tries out there. If we can take more of those opportunities, we’ll be in a much better place come Sunday evening.”
Wales team v New Zealand (Sunday 16 October, 3.15 am (UK), pm (NZ). Live on ITV and S4C online channels:
15 Kayleigh Powell
14 Jasmine Joyce
13 Megan Webb
12 Hannah Jones (vice-captain)
11 Lisa Neumann
10 Elinor Snowsill
9 Ffion Lewis
1 Cara Hope
2 Kelsey Jones
3 Donna Rose
4 Natalia John
5 Siwan Lillicrap (capt)
6 Gwen Crabb
7 Bethan Lewis
8 Sioned Harries
Replacements:
16 Kat Evans
17 Caryl Thomas
18 Sisilia Tuipulotu
19 Abbie Fleming
20 Alex Callender
21 Keira Bevan
22 Robyn Wilkins
23 Kerin Lake
