The coaching teams for the Wales Under 20, Wales Under 18, Wales Women and Wales Sevens side have been confirmed for the coming international season.
Danny Wilson, Allan Lewis, Paul John and Rhys Edwards have all retained their head coach roles and will lead their teams into their respective campaigns from a position of stability.
Changes to the coaching teams see Ioan Cunningham switch from the Under 20 to Under 18 set-up where will be forwards coach alongside Shaun Connor (backs), Richard Hodges (defence), who moves from the Wales Sevens group and Chris Horsman (scrum), with Phil John coming in as team manager.
Wales Women welcome the return of Sophie Bennett as team manager and the addition of Alun Wyn Davies as Wales Women attached coach.
The development of performance coaches and creating a playing philosophy for Welsh age grade teams are key to the role of Allan Lewis, WRU National Academy coaching manager.
“The Under 20 coaching group is a very experienced and knowledgeable set of individuals,” he said. “Scarlets forwards coach Danny Wilson did a great job at the Junior World Championship last summer, Mark Taylor is now an experienced team manager and Byron Hayward was previously backs coach at Sale.”
Danny Wilson added: “A fair few players from last season’s successful squad could still be involved this season so we have a good platform to build on.
“We will aim to improve on last year’s Six Nations performances while keeping player development at front of mind. There is a good relationship between the WRU and the Regions and the communication regarding the players’ development needs is a real positive. It is all geared towards the players gaining exposure to this level of rugby and build a bigger pool of high quality players.
“In terms of the Junior World Championship, our ambition will be as competitive as last season, to try to win our Pool and get to the semi-finals. If we can do that for a second consecutive season, we can all feel quite proud.”
Allan Lewis remains Wales Under 18 head coach but with a keen eye on developing coaches for the future.
“At Under 18 level, there is a larger coaching team for two reasons, firstly to develop a group of young coaches, and secondly because we are going to develop two groups of players this season,” he said.
“The squad for our first two games, against England and France in the spring will be aged Under 18 as of September 1 2012 whereas the squad for the FIRA-AER tournament at Easter will be the younger tranche of players Under 18 as of January 1 2013. This is to bring a larger group of players up to a higher standard and so as to give all boys who are good enough within the same school year the same opportunity to play and develop as potential future professional rugby players.”
Lewis emphasised the importance of creating a philosophy of play at Under 18 level that will help develop competitive but exciting rugby players for the future.
“We want to win games, but more important than that is to develop players into quality rugby players and at Under 18 level our aim is to encourage players to almost exclusively challenge the opposition with the ball in hand, whereas at Under 20 level players need to learn how to think smart in a game situation and become ‘rugby bright’.”
The Wales Under 20 and Under 18 squads will have direct input from Rob Howley and the National Management Team this season via the National Academy programme.
Wales Sevens have just returned from a training camp and warm-up tournament in South Africa ahead of the start of the HSBC Sevens Series, while Wales Women must finish in the top four of the Six Nations this season in order to guarantee qualification for the Women’s Rugby World Cup in 2014.
Paul John said: “The squad achieved more tournament points than ever before last season, and reached the Cup quarter-finals in seven out of nine Series tournaments, but we want to be even more competitive this season.
“We maintained our top eight position in the world rankings, but we have to try to consolidate that position by reaching the semi-finals more often. All the teams will have put more resources into sevens now at the start of a four year cycle towards the 2016 Olympics so we will have to raise our game.”
Wales Women head coach Rhys Edwards added: “We are looking forward to being able to build on the principles and styles we implemented last season, while Alun Wyn will be able to add some expertise in the set-piece and we welcome Sophie back as team manager.
“Our primary objective for the season is to qualify for the Women’s Rugby World Cup by finishing the Six Nations in the top four.
“The first game at home to Ireland will be key because if we win that one, we can look forward to our vital away games against Scotland and Italy with more confidence.”
WRU Head of Rugby Joe Lydon said, “The strength and depth of the appointed coaching and management groups both supports and echoes the WRU development to performance philosophy.
“We continue to strive to develop the full potential of players, coaches, management and match officials alike within a positive, enjoyable and challenging environment. Our ambitions are to see a winning Wales at all levels but the true measure of success will be in seeing the youth of the game reaching their full potential for club, region and hopefully country.”
Photo caption: WRU national performance manager Gethin Watts with WRU coaching teams for 2012/13 season: (left to right) Wales Sevens head coach and team manager Paul John and David Jenkins; Wales Under 18 team manager and head coach Phil John and Allan Lewis; Wales Under 20 head coach and team manager Danny Wilson and Mark Taylor; Wales Women team manager and head coach Sophie Bennett and Rhys Edwards
Wales international coaching teams
Wales U20
Team Manager- Mark Taylor
Head Coach - Danny Wilson
Assistant Coach- Byron Hayward
Wales U18
Team Manager- Phil John
Head Coach - Allan Lewis
Backs Coach - Shaun Connor
Forwards Coach- Ioan Cunningham
Defence Coach- Richard Hodges
Scrum Coach- Chris Horsman
Wales Sevens
Team manager - David Jenkins
Head coach - Paul John
Assistant coach - Gareth Williams
Wales Women
Team manager - Sophie Bennett
Head coach - Rhys Edwards
Assistant coach - Liza Burgess
Attached coach - Alun Wyn Davies
For further information contact WRU communications manager Liz Joneslizjones@wru.co.uktel 07736 056669
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