Wales Women Rugby Team PROFILE

The Wales senior women’s rugby team is the top level representative side, carrying the hopes of Wales in international competition.

Administered, owned and funded by the Welsh Rugby Union, Wales play in two major competitions – the annual Women’s Six Nations and the Women’s Rugby World Cup every fourth year.

They also host autumn Test matches in November and have recently started to play occasional summer tour matches overseas.

Known officially as “Wales Women” they are sometimes shortened to just “Wales” by some media who take the distinction between the men’s and women’s national team as implicit in the context.

Some of Wales’ international players have gone on to become major figures in the worldwide women’s game, such as triple Olympian Jaz Joyce-Butchers and World Rugby Hall of Fame inductee Liza Burgess.

Unlike the Wales men’s team, the vast majority of Wales Women squad members play their club rugby for English teams, rather than those based in Wales.

Despite having to spend decades fighting for official recognition, there were women’s teams in Wales acting as de facto national representative teams as far back as the First World War (1914-1918).

But it was not until 1987 that Wales Women played their first official international match, against England at Pontypool Park.

Wales hosted the first Women’s World Cup in 1991, but did not make it to the knockout stages. But three years later, Wales finished fourth at the 1994 tournament, their best finish to date.

Wales won a two-Test series, 2-0, in South Africa in in 1994, two years before the first Home Nations tournament was introduced in 1996.

Wales finished bottom of that inaugural tournament and continued to struggle when the tournament was expanded to five nations in 1999 and then six in 2002.

But by 2006, the team were proving far more difficult to beat and they finished second in the table behind England in 2006, 2008 and 2009.

In recent years, the team have struggled to match that level of consistency, although they have produced some outstanding individual players such as Joyce-Butchers, Siwan Lillicrap, Sioned Harries, Carys Phillips, Hannah Jones, Sisilia Tuipulotu and Keira Bevan.

In 2021, following intense pressure, the Welsh Rugby Union offered paid professional contracts to 10 players, the first for Wales Women players.

By 2024, that number had been extended to 37 senior Wales players, although results went into decline that year leading to the eventual dismissal of coach Ioan Cunningham.

In January 2025, Cunningham’s successor was named with Gloucester-Hartpury head coach Sean Lynn taking charge. 

Lynn had pedigree after leading Gloucester-Hartpury to three successive Premiership Women's Rugby titles.

But under Lynn, Wales continued to struggle and were white-washed in the 2025 Six Nations tournament, finishing bottom.

Wales then endured a group-stage exit from the 2025 World Cup after a costly opening defeat by Scotland, a heavy loss by Canada and a shock upset at the hands of Fiji.

By the end of the tournament on October 2025, Lynn had won only one of 10 Tests – a July tour triumph against Australia in Brisbane.