Here are the latest rugby headlines for Sunday, March 27.
Wales performance 'vindicates' contracts
Wales flanker and player of the match Alisha Butchers believes her team's stunning 27-19 comeback to beat Ireland is vindication for professional and semi-pro contracts being introduced. Twelve have been full-time since January and a dozen more Wales players are on part-time retainer contracts with the WRU.
Butchers received the Women's Six Nations player of the match award on Saturday in recognition of her influence on the game, particularly in the second half. Read the full report of what happened here.
Asked post-match if the performance was vindication for getting contracts, the Bristol Bear replied: "Absolutely. We felt a little bit more pressure today and rightly so. I'm lucky enough to have a full-time contract so I can put all my energy into this game. I feel super lucky to be part of this squad and we showed a performance. I'm ecstatic.
"The growth in the last 12 months has been incredible. I think we've done ourselves proud today and we can go back and reflect and grow from this performance."
It was in the second half where Wales really outshone the hosts in Dublin, with a well-worked try from Wales centre Hannah Jones at the death comfortably sealing the win. "Something we've been working on a lot is our second-half performances," Butchers added. "Throughout the autumns, we felt like we dropped off a little bit so today we wanted to come out and prove that everything we've been working on over the last four months has come into Dublin."
Ryan: No magic wand to reverse Dragons' fortunes
Dean Ryan has insisted there is no magic wand he can wave that will reverse the Dragons’ fortunes after their 55-20 defeat to the Bulls on Saturday night.
The Welsh side were understrength and actually fared better than most expected in Pretoria, despite comfortably coming off second best. Ryan insisted he was proud of his players’ efforts given the reality of the resources available to both sides.
“At the moment, we can only give a really good account of ourselves. We were really disappointed that wasn’t the case in Munster and we’ve been under pressure for a long time,” he said. “But that’s all we can do. There isn’t a magic wand that closes the gap between an international front row and a 22-year-old trying to learn his trade.
“Internally in Wales, it’s not actually that beneficial to development. It puts players under a huge amount of pressure. My job is to keep that stable. Will Reed as a 21-year-old comes on as a 10 today. He’s only ever played age group and the Premiership. That’s a huge jump for him and I’ve just got to keep that stable.”
He added: “I’m proud of them because they’re under an enormous amount of pressure. People think it’s to be taken for granted but it’s very difficult to see the effort levels today when they know, in certain areas, it’s pretty difficult for us to compete.”
Dai Young hopeful on Wales duo for Welsh derbies
Cardiff coach Dai Young is hopeful Wales duo Josh Navidi and Willis Halaholo will both be available for the upcoming Welsh derbies after picking up minor knocks in the win over Glasgow, which you can catch up on here. Both returned to the Blue and Blacks' starting XV a week on from the end of Wales' Six Nations defeat to Italy, with the pair playing their part in another stunning home victory over one of the league's best.
However, both Navidi and Halaholo departed the match before the end of the thrilling 32-28 victory. But with a double-header against the Scarlets followed by a clash with the Ospreys to come in the next few weeks, Young is hopeful they'll be fit and ready as Cardiff look to launch themselves up the United Rugby Championship table.
"I'm hoping so," he said. "Josh had his groin tighten up and Willis felt his hamstring a little bit. Fingers crossed, I don't think they're pulls or tears. We don't know, but they're pretty comfortable in the changing room. Hopefully a couple of days and they'll be right."
Both Navidi and Halaholo bounced back from the shock defeat to Italy last weekend, being one of five Welsh squad members to feature at the Arms Park. However, Young doesn't believe that a poor campaign had left them with something to prove against high-flying Glasgow.
"It's always nicer when players come back from a successful camp with a spring in their step. Obviously it didn't go to plan last week, but players want to get out on the park. It wasn't mentioned. It didn't work for them in that game but these things happen."
South African coach expect Welsh touring improvement over time
Bulls coach Jake White believes Welsh sides will get better in South Africa the more they tour.
Welsh teams have now lost six from six matches they’ve played in the country over the last fortnight, some by significant margins. But White believes the teams will adapt.
He said: “The most important thing is that the weather conditions are so different. “They’ve trained for the last four weeks in the rain and the mud. Then they come here and they play on hard fields and the sun is shining.
“It’s dry and they’ve got to adapt. I’m sure that as they play more and more here they will get better. I’ve no doubt that teams will get better as they tour here and they find out what the fields, the stadiums, the training facilities are like.”
South African sides had a tough start to the season when they had mixed results touring Wales without their international players. It led to criticism of their involvement in the league but White insists that was fair as they went through a similar adaptation process.
“It’s not a case of anything against the Welsh, it’s just nice that we’re winning and playing good rugby,” he said when asked if it was nice to see South African sides thumping Welsh ones. “It [criticism] was fair because we were adapting to the competition. Playing on dry fields here in the summer time is very difficult to northern hemisphere conditions.
“It’s wonderful that we can use the hard fields and conditions to our favour. It would be really dour of us to maul and play with our forward pack when we’re playing in weather like today. I’m sure the Welsh teams will get better. I don’t think they [Dragons] had a few of their international players here today.”
RFU hopes Eddie Jones replacement will be English
Rugby Football Union chief executive Bill Sweeney has revealed that an English candidate would be the overwhelming preference to replace Eddie Jones when his contract expires after the 2023 World Cup. Twickenham has put together a "war room" where succession planning is under way with the objective of appointing the new management team next summer, ensuring they are in place in time for the 2024 Six Nations.
Expanding the number of possible English candidates - who would include Steve Borthwick, Rob Baxter and Richard Cockerill - is that there is no pre-requisite for the new head coach to have international experience. Sweeney has declined to provide any names for legal reasons but the recruitment process is being conducted with the knowledge of Gallagher Premiership clubs.
"We believe we've got such a wealth of English coaches in the game. As a leading rugby nation we should be developing English coaches and an English style of play," Sweeney said. "That should be long-term and therefore the preference would be to have an English set-up, as far as I'm concerned.
"There's a very definite plan. We've got a war room that's got every English coach you can imagine - based here and based internationally. "It's got contracts and all sorts of things. We've got an advanced succession plan in place."
Jones will enter next year's World Cup in France with the understanding that there will be no possibility of extending his reign into a ninth year and beyond.
