Former Ospreys and Dragons fly-half Shaun Connor has joined Wales Women's coaching staff as their new attack and kicking coach.
The ex-Dragons and Russia coach joins Wales head coach Ioan Cunningham's backroom staff on a full-time basis to replace Richard Whiffin, who left the programme to lead the Highlanders' attack in New Zealand. Ospreys and England fly-half Stephen Myler also held the kicking coach role on a short-term basis in the months leading up to last autumn's women's Rugby World Cup, which Wales exited at the quarter-finals stage to eventual winners New Zealand.
Twenty-five full-time Wales Women playing contracts were announced on Friday, ahead of their TikTok Women's Six Nations campaign kicking off on Saturday, March 25, at home to Ireland at Cardiff Arms Park.
Connor worked as skills coach at the Dragons and was Russia's assistant coach at the 2019 men's Rugby World Cup. He moves from his role with Dragons' academy and Wales U20s, but will continue with Byron Hayward's U20s programme until a fresh appointment is made.
Wales finished third in last year's Women's Six Nations, their best position in 13 years, just a few months after historic professional contracts were first awarded by the WRU. With England and France remaining well ahead of the remaining four Six Nations teams, and Ireland, Scotland and Italy having also moved towards professionalism since last year's tournament, Wales need to continue to improve and consistently score more points if they are to hope for a successful campaign.
Wales boss Cunningham said: "Having gone through a thorough process to replace Richard Whiffin who has taken up an exciting opportunity with the Highlanders, we are delighted to bring Shaun on board. He is an experienced coach who has had exposure at the top level of professional and international rugby, and has played professionally too. We are excited for him to be working with us and I’m sure the players will are too."
Connor said: "I’ve been working with the Dragons Academy for the last 18 months, working with the U20s too and this opportunity is a new challenge and something that really interests me. I’ve seen the investment into the women’s game over the last 12 months or so and it’s only going to get better. With it being a full-time role, there’s a lot of scope for me to spend time with the players and make a difference, both in camp and with one-to-one sessions.
“That was a real attraction of the job, the contact time with the players means there’s the ability to make improvements. Hopefully, I can continue the good work Richard Whiffin did in attack, and Stephen Myler did for kicking which is a passion of mine. Attack is really about making decisions so it’s about putting the girls in those situations to make things easier come match time.”
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