These are your rugby headlines on the evening of Saturday, August 23
Wales head coach Sean Lynn speaking to the BBC post-match(Image: BBC Sport )
The latest news from across the rugby world on Saturday, August 23.
Wales coach slams players after heavy Scotland defeat
Wales Women’s head coach Sean Lynn has told his players their performance was not good enough after they suffered a 38-8 thrashing at the hands of Scotland in the opening game of the World Cup.
Sean Lynn’s side were outclassed throughout but the Wales boss will be extremely disappointed at the porous nature of the defence.
Wales’ tackling was non-existent at times as Scotland ran riot in the opening game of the tournament, leaving Lynn’s side with an uphill battle if they want to reach the quarter-finals with one of the competition favourites Canada also in their pool. Sign up to Inside Welsh rugby on Substack to get exclusive news stories and insight from behind the scenes in Welsh rugby.
“I’ve just said to the players that’s just not good enough,” Lynn told the BBC.
“We said that we wanted to be physical and Scotland, fair play to them, they just bullied us off the park, especially at the breakdown.
“You can’t start both halves with them scoring tries.
“In the second half then having a sin bin when we could have been in the game. Some of the girls came off the bench and gave some impact but that’s just not good enough.”
Lynn slammed Wales’ lack of physicality and told his players they must start delivering.
“That’s somewhere where we thought we could get some gains into this game but obviously we didn’t and Scotland did,” he said.
“Something which I’m saying to the girls is we can’t keep saying it we’ve got to deliver it. They are all upset.
“It’s hurting them, they are very passionate and disappointed by putting that result out today.
“But we’ve got Canada next week which will be another tough task and then we’ve got Fiji the week after. Those are the ones where we’ve got to build on.”
‘It will be the end of Welsh rugby’ says former Wales star
Former Wales centre Tom Shanklin believes it “will be the end of Welsh rugby” if there is a reduction to two professional sides.
The Welsh Rugby Union this week announced its ‘optimal solution’ for the professional men’s game which includes halving the number of professional teams from four to two.
But Shanklin insists this would be a bad decision by the governing body and took to social media platform X to voice his concerns.
“I’m convinced it will be the end of Welsh rugby,” wrote Shanklin in conversation with supporters.
The 45-year-old then went on to say his preference was to retain four professional teams.
“It won’t make much of a difference at international level. I’m for 4 regions, larger pathways and bigger pool to identify young talent,” he said.
“Next generation of pro players has to be the main focus.
“Short term 2 x pro teams will hopefully increase results domestically, but the main issue is the next generation of players coming through.
“They need investment, coached and developed to a very high standard so that we don’t find ourselves in same situation in 10 years’ time.
“We might be slightly more competitive with 2 teams but we won’t challenge the top of the table.
“Majority of funding has to go to creating the next superstars so we can compete with tier 1……..4 or 2 teams is irrelevant right now.”
England intensity goes up notch
By Rebecca Johnson, PA
John Mitchell believes England lifted their intensity in the second half of their 69-7 opening Women’s Rugby World Cup win against the United States.
The Red Roses kicked off the tournament in front of a record-breaking crowd of 42,723 at the Stadium of Light, scoring 11 tries.
Sadia Kabeya and Hannah Botterman sent England ahead before USA lock Erica Jarrell-Searcy responded, but after Alev Kelter was sent to the sin bin, Maud Muir and Ellie Kildunne scored in quick succession to see the hosts lead 28-7 at the break.
England shifted up a gear in the second half, running in seven tries as Abby Dow, Kildunne and Amy Cokayne all scored, while Jess Breach and Lark Atkin-Davies celebrated a brace apiece.
Reflecting on the game, Mitchell said: “It was a fantastic atmosphere, to represent your country in the opening match.
“I think we built into the performance slowly and lifted our intensity in the second half.
“Really enjoyed the way the girls built pressure on USA. We forced their negativity, I guess and then we took advantage of that.”
As well as notching their first points of the World Cup, victory also extended England’s winning run to 28 games in total.
The second half proved to be a particularly-ruthless display from the Red Roses against a team ranked 10th in the world, but Mitchell believed there was still “a lot of growth” left for England.
“Firstly, we’re the Red Roses. Even before my time they’ve set outstanding standards,” he said.
“We’re in a fortunate position, we’re also grateful to have great depth. We’re constantly creating pressure.
“The girls are extremely driven and don’t like to be beaten, like anyone, they don’t like to fail.
“Our training standards are very high and it’s up to us as leaders to make sure that we maintain that on a daily basis.
“That’s in our control, we can’t control outside of that. We can’t control where teams are ranked, we’ve just got to deal with what we’re confronted with.
“As I said earlier in the week, we’re hunted and we love being hunted. Every team’s going to rise physically and mentally 10 or 15 per cent, we expect that, but we’re also going to grow as well.
“We’ve only just got started and there’s a lot of growth left in us.”
Kildunne put in a particularly-impressive shift across the back three and Mitchell also praised England’s scrum, adding that there were still areas to improve.
He said: “It’s good to see Ellie back on the field, doing what she loves doing. She’s very intuitive and her skill set was very good tonight.
“That’s an individual, but then you’ve got to go and look at some of the effort areas by other players and also the scrum was outstanding tonight.
“The scrum buried USA. Numerous penalties probably could have sent some players to the bin as well because of continued negativity in that area.
“We’ll just go where we can apply pressure, if it has to be in the scrum.
“You can’t just always rely on individuals and as this tournament progresses, we’re going to have to get even better in our connections and working together.”