Women’s Six Nations: Wales have power to beat Ireland – Fleming

Abbie Fleming believes Wales have the power game to beat Ireland in Cork on Saturday.

They ended a 12-year losing streak in Ireland when they were victorious in Dublin on their last visit in 2022.

And Fleming insists Ioan Cunningham’s side are confident of getting back to winning ways this weekend.

“We’ve got a good strong pack and we are really confident in our power game so we believe we can take those strides forward to win,” said 29-year-old former Exeter Chiefs forward Fleming.

“We’re starting to develop real strength in depth and we’ve seen real impact coming off the bench at key moments during games so far.

“As a squad we’re very disappointed with the performance against Scotland but there were lots of positives against England.

“That fills us with confidence ahead of Ireland and we’re excited to show what we’ve been working on over the last two weeks.

“Ireland are physical and have really developed but we’ve been looking at specific plays using our power game and how we can get some front-foot ball, but also how we can get the ball wide and attack different areas.”

Expectation was high for Wales following their third-place finish last year but have now lost five games in a row since the friendly victory over USA last summer.

That has raised the stakes at Musgrave Park with Ireland also looking for their first success of the Six Nations following defeats by France and Italy.

And with a showpiece final match for Wales against Italy at the Principality Stadium to come – to follow a game against the French at the Arms Park – 16-cap Fleming knows results must improve.

“There’s always pressure to win but you have to thrive on that otherwise you crumble, so we have to chose which one we’re going to be,” she said.

“We missed a few opportunities against Scotland and we could have put ourselves in a better position in the table, but we can’t change the past.

“A win this weekend would be great and give us more confidence going into two home games, especially the last one at the [Principality] stadium.”