{"id":106572,"date":"2025-09-01T08:57:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T08:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/106572\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T08:57:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T08:57:07","slug":"womens-rugby-world-cup-five-talking-points-as-scotland-england-and-ireland-qualify","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/106572\/","title":{"rendered":"Women’s Rugby World Cup: Five talking points as Scotland, England and Ireland qualify"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wales knew that the opening game against Scotland would likely decide their World Cup fate.<\/p>\n

A disappointing 38-8 defeat left an uphill task to qualify for the knockout stages, and a win on Saturday over the world’s number two ranked side Canada was required.<\/p>\n

Sean Lynn, who took over as Wales head coach before this year’s Women’s Six Nations, made seven changes to his starting XV.<\/p>\n

Wales’ front row had average age of just 20, with back rower Branwen Metcalfe, 18, also making her Test debut from the bench.<\/p>\n

Despite falling to a 42-0 defeat<\/a> by one of the World Cup favourites, Lynn’s youthful side showed plenty of green shoots to work with moving forward.<\/p>\n

“I am glad the Wales women showed their respect for the jersey and the effort they are willing to put in,” former Wales captain Philippa Tuttiett told BBC’s Rugby Union Weekly.<\/p>\n

“If you bring that to Sean Lynn with his coaching prowess then he will be able to move forward with that team.”<\/p>\n

However, Wales must first keep an eye on the emerging nations behind them, with Fiji, who are ranked four places below them in 14th, likely to offer a tough final pool game on Saturday in Exeter.<\/p>\n

Spain, ranked 13th, suffered a 43-27 defeat by Ireland<\/a> on Sunday and are another side that are showing signs of progress.<\/p>\n

“Let’s put Spain in the Six Nations,” former England captain Maggie Alphonsi told BBC Sport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wales knew that the opening game against Scotland would likely decide their World Cup fate. A disappointing 38-8…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-106572","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}