Wales head coach Ioan Cunningham has made four changes to the starting lineup for Sunday’s match against reigning Women’s Rugby World Cup champions New Zealand.
Wales dealt with a major blow this week when flanker Alisha Butchers was ruled out for the remainder of the tournament due to a “significant” knee injury, provoking a reshuffle in the team.
Lock Gwen Crabb moves to No. 6, Siwan Lillicrap resumes captaincy and starts in the second row alongside Natalia John. Bethan Lewis takes over the starting No. 7 jersey from Alex Callender, and Kelsey Jones replaces Carys Phillips, who is nursing an ankle injury. Sioned Harries stays at the back of the scrum, while Cara Hope and Donna Rose round out the front row.
Hannah Jones is named vice-captain and starts in midfield alongside Meg Webb, with wings Jasmine Joyce and Lisa Neumann and full-back Kayleigh Powell completing the back-three.
Elinor Snowsill and Ffion Lewis start at half-back, with Bevan and Robyn Wilkins on the bench, as well as midfield cover Kerin Lake, who has returned from injury to make her World Cup debut.
Cunningham says, “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.”
He further says, “We started well against Scotland, scored two tries 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.”
The Women’s Rugby World Cup match between Wales and New Zealand will go live on ITV.