A year to remember and a year to forget for Wales

A Six Nations wooden spoon, drawn-out contract negotiations, player threats and a departed coach all made for a turbulent 2024 in Welsh women's rugby.

Things could only get better in 2025 right?

The year started with so much promise with the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) apologising for its failings, investing more money and making the national team among the highest paid in the women's international game.

There were also significant appointments in January, with Belinda Moore announced as the new head of women's rugby and three-time Premiership Women's Rugby (PWR) winner Sean Lynn as Wales' new head coach.

But what transpired on the pitch over the past 12 months has, let's face it, been dreadful with Wales winning just one of 10 Test matches.

Let's take a look at how it unfolded.

There was a careful optimism heading into the 2025 Six Nations, despite Lynn's preparations limited to just three sessions.

His Wales contract had allowed him to finish the PWR season with Gloucester-Hartpury, which due to their success was just six days before the Six Nations opener away to Scotland.

Still, Wales performed admirably in a narrow defeat, with promising signs of a new era.

But what followed were four sobering defeats by England, France, Ireland and, perhaps most painfully, Italy.

Lynn kept reminding critics that Rome was not built in a day and hopes were still relatively high for the Rugby World Cup, given the luxury of a pre-season.

Lynn delivered on his promise of a brutal preparation, having cited a lack of fitness and skill after his first campaign.

At the same time he dropped Hannah Dallavalle as captain, opting for the co-captaincy of Kate Williams and Alex Callender for the tour of Australia and the World Cup.

The summer's opening Test in Brisbane had an overwhelming feeling that Wales had finally arrived, as they celebrated a first win on Australian soil and a first under Lynn. Wales were unrecognisable from the team which suffered a Six Nations whitewash.

Their resurgence only lasted a week as they were well beaten by the Wallaroos in Sydney, but they were encouraged by the fact that they had big performances in them as they headed back to the UK for the World Cup hosted by England.

Wales had been drawn in a World Cup group alongside Scotland, Canada and Fiji, with hopes of progressing to the knock-outs pinned on their opener against the Scots.

Wales had enjoyed uninterrupted preparations while it was Scotland's turn to go through contract uncertainty.

But what unravelled in Salford still takes some digesting. Wales were nowhere to be seen, they were completely and utterly overwhelmed.

Lynn himself led the criticism, saying his side were "bullied off the park" by a team that wanted it more.

And while the rest of the world enjoyed a glorious tournament with record-breaking crowds and breathless games, Wales' campaign merely fizzled out with an expected defeat by Canada and a loss against lower ranked Fiji which pretty much summed up their campaign.

You have to dig deep to find some positives in Wales' season, but once you get beyond the layer of disappointing results, there are some green shoots of hope.

Nel Metcalfe, Carys Cox and Kayleigh Powell were standout performers and gave Wales' stale backline some much-needed spark.

Lynn also exposed a new generation to Test rugby - Maisie Davies, Katherine Baverstock, Branwen Metcalfe and Tilly Vucaj all made their debuts this year.

Meanwhile, former Wales captain Siwan Lillicrap, now managing the WRU's women's performance pathway, says there is plenty of exciting age-grade talent coming through, talent we can expect to see in this season’s Celtic Challenge.

WRU plans to shake-up the women's game are also cause for optimism.

As well as extra funding for Celtic Challenge sides Brython Thunder and Gwalia Lightning, there will be a new four-club league, a national academy and player development centres as part of its restructure.

"The first six months [in the job] were a bit of a whirlwind," reflected Lynn, "I've done a Six Nations, I went to Australia, and I've done a World Cup.

"We had a robust review on how we can move forward as a group of staff and players, and that's really focusing on the pathway.

"The alignment of the pathway is so important, I'm making sure that we're building with Siwan and Liza Burgess [Wales Under-20s coach] for the future."

While victories are top of Lynn's Christmas wish list for 2026, he said it was about taking "small steps in the right direction".

"I felt like we did that in Australia... It's about building on those performances and getting the results," he said.

Lynn may not have been able to work his PWR magic in his first year, and success is clearly going to take time.

Fortunately for Lynn and Wales, there is a whole new year to come.