Keira Bevan already looking forward to Black Ferns challenge

Keira Bevan’s Wales side may have lost their opening WXV 1 match against Canada, but the scrum-half is upbeat about the potentially tougher assignment facing them this weekend.

The teams travelled south to Dunedin for the next round of WXV 1 matches, which sees Wales face world champions New Zealand on Saturday 28th October at Forsyth Barr Stadium.

Bevan had a strong game in the 42-22 loss, using her eight years’ worth of experience for the national side to direct a strong first half effort.

“I think the first half, for a neutral, it was quite exciting,” she said.

“Very fast paced, both teams played good rugby. The second half both teams kind of died off a bit but Canada were able to pick it back up later in the half. As the scoreline shows, they finished us off in the end.”

The fight shown after conceding an early Canadian try was evident, with Wales striking back almost immediately with a try of their own to hooker Carys Phillips. The Welsh scored three tries in total with Bevan knocking two conversions and a penalty, one of which was from the sideline.

“I think we can take a lot of positives. We stepped up physically and that’s a bonus, because it’s not going to get any easier. We have the Black Ferns in Dunedin, so I think the main positive was that we kept the ball quite well and played some positive rugby. Defensively I thought we were pretty solid.”

New Zealand will be hurting after dropping their first match 18-17 to France.

“They play such an exciting brand of rugby, very attack focused. But also with a very good attacking kicking game. I think if we switch off for a second next week we’ll get punished. I think the main thing we can take is that we have to always be on.

“They’re a great team and great people as well. We’re excited as to where we come against the world champions.”

Bevan said that the focus of the Welsh WXV 1 campaign goes much further than just this fixture in Dunedin.

“I think we’re on a journey, till 2025 at least. That’s our end goal, to keep progressing till then. We’ve definitely got better since last year’s World Cup, since the Six Nations. For us it’s about learning stuff on and off the pitch.

“Personally, I get to play against the five best scrum-halves in the world. It’s great to put yourself up against the best. As a team, it’s very similar. We showed that we deserve to be here, we worked really hard and finished third in the Six Nations quite convincingly. So I think as a team to be competing with the best we’re only going to get better and I think today showed that.”

One thing they are at least being reminded of, after playing New Zealand twice last year in the Rugby World Cup, is how welcoming the locals are.

“Everyone is really nice to us, perhaps it’s because we’re Welsh.

“When we arrived on the bus there were Welsh flags about. We haven’t got many family here at the minute because they all spent their money coming over for the World Cup last year, so it’s nice to see a bit of red in the crowd and some dragons flying about.”