Wales ready to prove a point on world stage

Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025: Scotland v Wales

Venue: Salford Community Stadium Date: Saturday, 23 August Kick-off: 14:45 BST

Co-captain Kate Williams says Wales are ready to prove a point when they take on Scotland at the Rugby World Cup.

Wales again came away with the Wooden Spoon at this year’s Women’s Six Nations, losing all five games for the first time in their history.

But after a full pre-season and a drawn two-Test tour of Australia under head coach Sean Lynn, Williams says her side are ready to show what they can do on the biggest stage of all.

“We want to be a hard team to beat, we want the opposition to think ‘we’ve got Wales next, that’s going to be a massive test for us’.

Scotland have won their last three meetings against Wales, the most recent a nail-biting 24-21 victory in Edinburgh.

“I know that the recent results have proven that Scotland have had the upper hand over us, but if we take context into it, we only had two days with Lynny before we were playing in the Six Nations. I think we’re a different team now,” said Williams.

The 25-year-old credits a higher intensity in training for their progress, which included a historic win against Australia in Brisbane last month.

“It’s not just two hand touch, we’re putting in shots, we’re doing full contact in those sessions, a full 15 on 15,” she said.

“It’s where we can really test our attack, test our defence and it’s where we’re drawing massive confidence from.

Lynn welcomes the competitiveness in his 32-player squad, admitting he had some selection headaches before naming his team for Saturday’s opener.

“That’s where we’re at at the moment. It’s really nice, the competitiveness that we’ve got in the squad,” he said.

“Today it got a little bit spicy in training and that’s how I think it should be.

“We’re in a World Cup and it’s the biggest World Cup, so it’s really exciting and the girls are just thriving on it.”

While Lynn said there is still more to come from his side, he believes they have made progress in the collision area over the summer, with Ben Flower coming into his backroom staff.

“We’re on the right track. I set targets after the Six Nations to the players. They went away and have come back in better shape,” Lynn said.

“The big emphasis is making sure that we can play with the intensity that I want us to.