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Wales finish WXV 2 campaign with clinical win over Japan in Cape Town

Players of Wales celebrate with a banner after successfully qualifying for the Women's Rugby World Cup 2025 following their victory inthe WXV 2 2024 match between Wales and Japan at Athlone Sports Stadium on October 11, 2024 in Cape Town, South Africa. (Photo by Johan Rynners - World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images)

Wales have finished their WXV 2 campaign on a high with a 19-10 win over Japan at Athlone Sports Stadium in Cape Town. It’s a positive end to Wales’ international season after two losses earlier in the tournament.

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Wales stunned Australia 31-24 at Rodney Parade in the last fixture before facing the same foe in the WXV 2 opener one week later. But, it was a very different story at DHL Stadium with the Wallaroos recording a dominant 37-5 win on September 28th.

The Welsh looked to bounce back in their round two fixture against Italy, but it couldn’t have started much worse for them with the Azzurri scoring 11 minutes into the contest. Italy ended up taking the win by a slender three-point margin at the end of the 80 minutes.

That set the scene for a grandstand finish for the Welsh. With Japan also searching for their first win of the competition following defeats to hosts South Africa and Scotland, there was always going to be a fair bit of passion and feeling in this contest.

Match Summary

0
Penalty Goals
0
3
Tries
2
2
Conversions
0
0
Drop Goals
0
152
Carries
137
11
Line Breaks
7
23
Turnovers Lost
20
6
Turnovers Won
11

But, it was one-way traffic during the first term as Nel Metcalfe and Kevin Bevan both crossed for first-half tries. SVSN Series star Jasmin Joyce scored Wales’ third after the break to see them take a 19-nil lead after 43 minutes of play.

While Japan hit back with two tries inside the final 20 minutes, the accuracy of Bevan’s goal-kicking boot saw Cymru avoid a realistic chance of an upset late. Wales held on for a nine-point win which means Japan will play in WXV 3 next time the tournament is held.

This weekend, Australia will take on Scotland to determine the winner of WXV 2. Both teams are undefeated from their two starts to date, but the Scots have never beaten the Wallaroos in an international Test from three meetings.

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“Coming off the back of two wins themselves so they’ll be feeling pretty confident and pretty sure in what they’re putting out on the field as well,” Australia captain Michaela Leonard told reporters earlier this week.

“We know they’re a really strong side set-piece wise, being a Northern Hemisphere team, Six Nations, they get a lot of that sort of rugby throughout the year.

“(We) know we’re going to have to sure up some of those areas, particularly around the scrum, from last week, and we expect a really physical game.

“Looking at what we’ve been doing well, definitely looking to continue our kick pressure, our connection and the high speed, high tempo game that we’re wanting to play.”

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In other results overnight, Samoa recorded an emphatic 46-15 win over Madagascar. Samoa drew their first game of WXV 3 eight-all with the Netherlands before bouncing back with a big 45-17 victory over Fiji in the second round.

As for WXV 1, Ireland recorded their second win of the three-round competition. The women in green beat the USA by 12-points, which follows their shock win over New Zealand in the opening round and a tough loss to Canada last time out.

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Comments

2 Comments
C
CN 295 days ago

Wales still have some work to do before the 6N and indeed the World Cup next year but it is pleasing to see them developing to look to involve the backs more

B
BC 296 days ago

Clinical is not a word I would use in relation to Wales women. One try from a charge down, the second from a suspicious forward pass and the third from an interception on their own goal line. Opportunistic more like. Still a win is a win.

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T
Tom 13 minutes ago
How group of spoiled Racing 92 players drove Stuart Lancaster 'insane'

It's a culture clash, for some it works for others it doesn't. Lancaster says it himself why he didn't like it there, he says there was a big group of lazy players just content to pick up a fat paycheck. This is pretty evident from the lack of success Racing have had for years in spite of the money they've thrown around. Two hard working, tough nosed lads from the industrial heartland of England were never going to thrive in leadership roles at Racing. Two very different ideologies, all the jouez jouez, joie de vivre, laissez faire wasn't going to work for them. It sounds like the French didn't think much of them either which doesn't surprise me.


A player coming in from Fiji has a huge culture shock too but in rugby terms the French attitude probably suits them quite well and they're earning more money than they've ever dreamed of. It's very different from a couple of hard nosed Englishmen stepping in to leadership roles trying to force a load of Frenchmen at a very challenging Parisian club to adopt an entirely different attitude, they were always going to rub each other up the wrong way. Lancaster obviously signed Farrell because he wanted a lieutenant to enforce discipline, the writing was on the wall at this point. At a club like Toulouse or La Rochelle it might have worked better but at Racing no chance.


.. and don't get me wrong this isn't a criticism of the French, I absolutely love France. They're certainly better at rugby than we are right now. It's just two very disparate styles which don't play nicely together and perhaps a bit of a criticism of Racing, there are some deep seeded issues at the club.

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S
Soliloquin 31 minutes ago
How group of spoiled Racing 92 players drove Stuart Lancaster 'insane'

Indeed, there’s probably many elements lost in translation (or when there’s no translation) when a coach whose language proficiency is not optimal.

But again, there are French assisting coaches who are around to give all the details, while the global idea is delivered by the coach.

And the psychological impact of someone trying to fit in this very local rugby culture cannot be neglected.


In rugby, France is really something else, with Argentina and Italy

But objectively, although not having won the RWC, France had more success than these 2 latin nations and I think French rugby players, coaches and club owners probably feel entitled to be respected. And respect comes by integrating with language.

I don’t have any stats, but I can imagine all foreign players who became legends all learned French to some extent.

And this is what could make the difference between a player that contributed to great successes (Bakkies) and the one who also tried to get closer to the club and country culture (Wilkinson) at RCT.


I do not know how it was going for international coaches in Italy or in Argentina for instance, but there’s probably an element of showing that you take into consideration the expertise and history of a club/country. And if you’re just a guy who feels entitled while simply coming with his own ideas without adapting to the context, French rugby level and Top14’s aura (and chauvinism I guess?) will not help you get adhesion from players and achieve success.


I do not really think it’s an issue of understanding each other with all possible nuances, because if we don’t get the idea, we could always ask for precisions.

It just seems to be differences in perception, linked to social or cultural factors.

I’ll feel way closer intellectually speaking with a guy that shares my ideas while coming from NZ than with a French guy that sees reality with a different lens. And as much as I’ll want to, I won’t be able to communicate with that guy although we share all the linguistic nuances.

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