... very underwhelming, wasn't it?

Yeah, it was.

Yeah, that score line wasn't too dissimilar actually to last season, so as much as you wanna see an improvement, obviously we gotta have the context that all the other teams are improving as well, and Ireland certainly fall into that.

I w- I, I don't want to say they've gone backwards, but it does feel if it, it ...

I'm being nice to st- to say that they've just sort of plateaued in this game, 'cause I feel like each round we've been able to pick something out.

We're like, "There's the progression.

There's the progression.

You like it?

... to put forth your, your argument

...

so my, uh, feelings on it have, have actually changed.

So when we were back in the amateur days, and I used to play touch rugby, that's a size four ball, which is quite a bit smaller, but I used to also love the ability of being able to hold it in one hand.

And there's no doubt the passing quality between the girls was better.

You were passing longer.

You were passing faster.

Mm.

Yeah.

Surely if you're gonna do something like this, you would look out at a certain cohort of players and get their opinion because it's their game.

Now, I'm gonna give the devil's advocate side of this because some people have been talking to me about it, and one argument I keep hearing about is women's basketball.

Now, women's basketball is arguably the most successful, um, women's team sport out there commercially, and they do play with a one-size smaller ball in comparison to the men's.

So I had a little deep dive on this, and the very, very different context is the fact that that was brought in in the 1980s before the women's game ever went professional.

So that's completely different.

That's what they've always had, and that's what they've continued to use.

Didn't quite happen, but how up are they gonna be [laughs] for this game against, uh, your women?

And we'll get into detail in, in that sense, but, but Wales, they have a structure and a system in place, don't they?

Yeah, they do.

I was really impressed with them.

I think, you know, each week we've sort of picked out a positive.

Round one was the defense.

Then round two we said, "Right, we need to see more attack.

We need to see building, uh, pressure with the scoreboard." Now, round three, they go into England, the hardest challenge of all of them, and we saw the good defense that stayed, and we saw an improvement in their attack and a varied attack as well.

[laughs]

Wales.

And he actually put it very well.

He's transitioning into coaching, and he said, when you're coming up against a team like England, he said the narrative should be how often can you force them to be world-class to be able to score against you.

So it's not about a certain score line, it's about reviewing that game and going, it wasn't easy for them.

They had to be insane with their skillset.

They had to be spot on.

They had to take every opportunity to beat us.

... giving her the time on the ball? Where would you go, Lockwood or Bevan for more time on the field or that impact off the bench?

... played out.

Yeah.

There were a couple of times the forwards had some nice little tip-on passes, and I think that's sort of the way for them to go forward, rather than just the head down, just run straight.

They've gotta have that little bit of elusiveness of the, of the little tip-on before.

But again, it felt like when the connection then should've been coming with the outside backs or the outside players, not necessarily just the backs, I didn't feel threatened then.

And there were a couple of times where the pass and the run weren't quite aligned.

We had some space on the outside edge, and we either over, sort of threw the ball on, like, a missed one to try and get out wide quickly, but then the French defense just followed it.

Oof.

Philippa, fond memories for you?

Yes, I would just like to say I was very young back in 2006.

I can't believe I was playing then.

Let's not go there.

There's a black and white photo somewhere.

Prove it.

Yeah, very fond memories.

Many people would see her as the poster girl and maybe be quite surprised by these comments.

... where you see her?

Um, I would actually like to see her in at fly-half.

She does a job, don't get me wrong, at 15.

Um, it's difficult because Claire George, uh, her kicking game got us out of trouble a couple of times.

Um, talking about, you know, long kicks, she was, um, fielding restarts deep in her 22 and, and clearing it to the halfway, which is brilliant, especially in the women's game, pushing Scotland right back.

Did it on a couple occasions.

But with this new defensive strategy, which is all about high tempo, I'm not sure Claire George is fast enough around the park to, to complement that defense, and I actually think Kayleigh Powell maybe has a shot in at fly-half position.

But sorry, back to the question.

It's quite a bit there, isn't

it? First of all, I think it's really exciting.

I think it's great that we can see the uncapped players.

We've got some new faces involved because this is the start of a four-year World Cup cycle.

So this is the time now to blood in new players.

And there's been a lot of talk previously around the centres for Wales.

And going back to your point about attacking and it's been more forward-led than backs.

Change the way they're playing, you know, different...