Wales Women: Coach Ioan Cunningham can start looking forward again

Ioan Cunningham’s next game will be his 30th as Wales head coach but he will take charge with renewed confidence and hope.

Since his promotion from Under-20s head coach to the women’s senior side in 2021, the former number eight has taken Wales to new heights.

Successive third places in the Six Nations, qualification for WXV1 and sixth in the world rankings have been major achievements.

But as so often the case in sport – particularly Welsh rugby – record highs build up for an even bigger fall.

Wales equalled their worst run of defeats during this year’s Six Nations with a seventh successive loss, and only Sisilia Tuipulotu’s last-gasp try to beat Italy prevented a new low.

That meant a play-off against Spain, winners of Rugby Europe Championship – effectively the second tier in Europe – to qualify for WXV2, as well as sealing a place in the 2025 World Cup in England.

Cunningham had said before kick-off that playing in WXV3 would “not be a disaster”, but it is hard to believe those above him in the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) would not have regarded it as such given the significant investment in the women’s game.

Rubbing shoulders with Hong Kong and Madagascar, just a year after mixing it with New Zealand, Australia and Canada, would have been damaging.

And for 40 minutes at Cardiff Arms Park on Saturday, that prospect was on the cards after Carys Cox’s yellow card opened the door for a far lighter but nimbler Spanish to come within a point of Wales at 21-20.

Cracks in Welsh play and confidence were being exposed until a calming word at half-time enabled an assured second-half display and an eight-try rout.