- 3 months ago
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Principality Stadium where the Head of Women's Rugby at the WRU, Belinda Moore, is here to discuss the future of the game here in Wales.
00:10An opportunity to reflect on Wales at the Rugby World Cup and to talk about much wider plans too. Belinda, it's great to meet you.
00:18Thank you very much, lovely to meet you too.
00:20I'd like to start with the Rugby World Cup if that's okay. It'd be great to get your assessment on the campaign, the margins in the pool matches.
00:29You know, there was a feeling really that performance didn't live up to expectation.
00:33No, I think you're right. I think, you know, when we look back at it, I think we are disappointed with how the World Cup went.
00:39We had hopes and expectations going into it and I think we always knew that that was a very difficult pool.
00:44So it was always likely to be either Scotland or ourselves who got out of that pool and went through.
00:49Canada being the second team in the world were always likely to be able to top the pool.
00:53So I think it was always going to be difficult, but I think we've been very honest with ourselves.
00:57We didn't show up the way we wanted to in the Scotland match and that was really frustrating.
01:02I think there were some good moments of play.
01:04It was a good, strong 20 minutes, I mean 20 minutes against Canada, but I say they are a very strong team.
01:09And the Fiji match, really small margins in that.
01:13We scored five tries, which was, you know, a huge positive, but I think we'd wanted to come away with at least one win from that pool.
01:19Ideally, the second win against Scotland to take us through to the quarterfinal stage.
01:23So, no, I think we are disappointed, but we'll take lots of learnings from it.
01:27And looking at those learnings, at the positives for going forward, you know, what particularly are they and how are they going to be shaping things in the future?
01:36I think there's two sides to that.
01:38I think one is about the team itself.
01:40And I think that we had the win in Australia on the tour just ahead of World Cup, which was a fantastic win for us.
01:46They're ranked above us in the world.
01:47So, that was a real positive.
01:48And I say there were some strong moments of play against both Canada and Fiji that we can build on.
01:53And I think also in the bigger picture, I mean, it's been hugely exciting to see the number of fans in the crowd, to see the number of people engaging with the World Cup,
02:01the number of pink bows that were in the crowd, you know, supporting the team in Georgia particularly after she spoke out.
02:07So, I think there were some really lovely positives, but on the pitch, it wasn't what we wanted it to be.
02:12A new head coach, Sean Lynn, been in place about six months now.
02:19You know, what are the learnings that are coming through?
02:21How is that going to shape the future particularly from what the coaching team have been seeing already?
02:28Yeah, I mean, we're really lucky to have Sean Lynn.
02:30I mean, he won the PWR three times with Gloucester Hartbury.
02:34He comes with a really established record as a very strong women's coach.
02:38And he's worked with a number of players before.
02:40So, I think he will be fantastic.
02:41He just hasn't had the time.
02:43You know, he joined full-time the week before Six Nations.
02:46So, that wasn't really his campaign.
02:48And he put a huge amount of work into the World Cup.
02:51And the team was fit as, you know, we could be in the timeframe we had.
02:55And I think one of the challenges we see, and he's spoken quite a lot about it, is players getting regular rugby.
03:01So, we have a number of players playing over the border in England.
03:04And that's great for those that are getting starting positions.
03:07But I think there are a number that are not playing regular rugby.
03:09So, Sean's spoken a lot about wanting to get those players back, playing the Celtic Challenge, playing regular rugby to strengthen those skills on and off the pitch.
03:20So, I think that's our focus now is to get the players having more game time running into big tournaments.
03:25There is a consultation ongoing at the moment by the WRU into the future of the elite game here in Wales.
03:33It'd be interesting to know whether the senior women have given any feedback to you about that.
03:39You know, what are their hopes for the future?
03:41I think everybody wants to see the game grow.
03:43I think that's the most important thing.
03:45And the question is, how do we make that growth happen?
03:47I think it's probably fair to say that most of us have been heads down in the World Cup.
03:52There's a women's consultation taking place.
03:54So, I think now is the time to have those conversations.
03:57And we were certainly involved in the pre-work and how that might look and feel.
04:01But I think the women's game is a massive area for growth.
04:04So, I think we want to create opportunities that drive that growth.
04:08There are plans to invest in the women's game outside of the consultation process itself.
04:13We have a long five-year strategy for the women's game.
04:16But anything we can do that helps to turbocharge that process will only be a good thing for the game.
04:20But ultimately, we know what we want to do with the women's game.
04:23And we'll work with the consultation.
04:25Yeah, because you have said that the consultation is not, you know,
04:29exclusive to the development of the women's game.
04:32You know, what structures are you putting in place?
04:35And have you put in place already for success?
04:37Well, exactly that.
04:38I mean, we've got the two Celtic Challenge teams in Gwaila and Brython.
04:41And actually, before this process happened, we'd started a tender process to embed those with men's teams.
04:46And one of the things we can see from looking over the border is that sort of back shared offices,
04:51shared environment actually helps to support our teams, women's teams.
04:55Because right now in the environment that we have,
04:57it's tough to get women's teams to be standalone teams, you know, commercially and for other reasons.
05:01And so I think that opportunity to work with a men's club is a real positive.
05:06And I say we've seen that in other spaces and in other countries.
05:09So I think that's very exciting.
05:11And we want to see what that looks like going forward.
05:14Whichever way the consultation goes, we want to make sure that that's part of it.
05:18So I think there's that.
05:19I think there's also what exists underneath that.
05:21So we've built some really strong development plans through our PDCs across Wales.
05:26So we're growing that programme, giving young girls opportunities to train at the very highest level.
05:31We've seen some of the results of that come through.
05:33So under 18s and under 20s, you know, we had two of the youngest players at the World Cup in Seren and Bramwyn.
05:40And so we can see some of that strength.
05:42And Sean was very brave in taking some of our youngsters to the World Cup for them to get that experience.
05:46So I think there's lots of good things coming through.
05:48I think there's a gap still between Celtic challenge and we need a layer underneath that, which we know we need to do.
05:56But it's trying to make sure we put the right structures in place and the right opportunities.
06:00We need that to be spread across the country.
06:02We need to give opportunity for girls across the country to be able to play at the highest level.
06:07So that's our next, our next big project is what does that layer beneath Celtic challenge start to look like?
06:13Because under the optimal proposed system, you know, that there could be two fully professional women's team and a new domestic league.
06:24What would that mean in practice?
06:26I think, I think it would give up more opportunities to our players at the minute.
06:30Most women athletes at the level that a lot of our players are playing at are juggling a full-time career and a full-time rugby career.
06:37And that's a really difficult challenge.
06:39As you move towards professionalism, that gives the opportunity to support those players to be able to commit more to their rugby and to balance that work-life juggle.
06:47So I think that gives huge opportunities for our players.
06:49I think you need to manage that carefully.
06:51And I say we will look to other leagues around the world to see, to benchmark some examples of best practice.
06:57But I think it creates opportunity that we don't currently have.
07:00But we have some amazing players who are juggling really, really hard at the moment and still, you know, showing up on the pitch and playing brilliantly.
07:08And you spoke about, you know, some exciting times and the growth of the game.
07:13We know that the game is growing here in Wales and actually women's sports generally is growing here in Wales.
07:19But in terms of the team performing well against those tier one teams, you reference Canada, England, France, New Zealand.
07:29What support really needs to be in place?
07:31I think there's two things in that.
07:32I think one is you need to grow that player base at the bottom.
07:35So we need to create a bigger player base and get more girls playing rugby.
07:39And hopefully the World Cup will inspire them to do so.
07:41So you need to grow your player base.
07:43And as I say, we've seen the youngsters starting to come through from that.
07:46And then you need to put the environment around the senior squad that works for them.
07:49And I think we will have a big debrief.
07:52We are in the process of working through it at the moment post-World Cup.
07:54And we'll start to work out what are those optimum structures to work around the national team.
08:00So what are your targets looking to the Six Nations then?
08:04I think we want a much better Six Nations than we had last time around.
08:07I mean, it's not difficult to say that, I suspect, because we finished bottom.
08:11But we've got three matches at home this year.
08:13We've got Scotland at home as our first match.
08:15So that'll be a very big grudge fixture.
08:16And then we've got Italy and France coming over here as well.
08:19So I think we will be targeting some victories across the Six Nations campaign this year.
08:26I'm not going to put a number on it.
08:27But we definitely want a much better performance than we put in the World Cup.
08:31You know, we want to come off the pitch being really proud of everything we've achieved.
08:34So that's the ambition.
08:35It's a big ambition.
08:37Yes.
08:37In terms of wider ambition, I suppose, and how you can be supported, we know that there's
08:45great community links, that there is support in communities.
08:49But in terms of growing the game further here in Wales for women, what would you like to see?
08:55You know, what can the fans do?
08:56I was going to say, I mean, the answer is turn up at the rugby clubs.
08:59Bring your boots.
08:59Bring your trainers.
09:00You don't need boots.
09:00Just bring your trainers and come to a rugby club and give it a go because it is a very
09:05special game.
09:06There's something, because it's a contact sport, there's something quite unique about
09:09that.
09:09And it's actually very positive, particularly around mental health as well, which has been
09:12well tracked.
09:13So it's a really exciting game for girls to play.
09:16And actually, we just want to get them into rugby clubs with a ball in hand and actually
09:20just giving it a go.
09:21Or even in their schools, wherever the local community takes it to, we'd like to see them
09:26just giving it a go.
09:27Well, that's a great note to end on, Belinda.
09:30Thanks so much for sharing your views, giving us that feedback, and also great to look ahead
09:35at this point.
09:36Thanks so much.
09:37Thank you very much.