Anyone would be forgiven for assuming a side with six Wales internationals in the starting line-up, two more on the bench and another three in the wider squad would be one of the best teams in Welsh rugby, surely.
But the outfit in question is actually Bristol Bears Women, who are bidding to reach their first Allianz Premier 15s final and be crowned the best side in England's top women's rugby competition, which is regarded as the finest in the world. The Bristol outfit boast no fewer than nine Wales stars from the recent Six Nations squad - including the likes of captain Siwan Lillicrap, flanker Alisha Butchers and winger Jasmine Joyce - and is only surpassed by Gloucester-Hartpury Women who have 10 current Test stars.
Finishing third in the regular season, Bristol are among the clubs at the forefront of unifying their rugby approach in a league where most Premier 15s clubs are affiliated to a Gallagher Premiership side. The women's team is based at Bristol's high performance centre, one of the most ultra-modern facilities in the country, while players have access to men's coaches and can sit in on meetings with their counterparts.
Central to something of a revolution at the club is ex-Harlequins hooker Dave Ward, who came in as head coach last summer to spearhead a dramatic turnaround in results which has secured a place in Sunday afternoon's semi-final against Exeter after an eighth-place finish last season out of 10 sides. Ward, 37, jokes that the players thought he "was a madman" when he professed a top-four target finish on the eve of the season.
It can perhaps be considered all the more impressive given the spine of the squad has remained largely unchanged, save for the arrivals of Ward's wife, England lock Abbie, and Red Roses scrum-half Leanne Infante from defending champions Harlequins. Other than that, personnel has been consistent - with Wales' best players a firm fixture.
The women's rugby pathway in Wales is missing a club tournament which provides the same level of competition and intensity to bridge the gap from grassroots rugby to international duty, and it is an issue WRU performance director Nigel Walker is trying to resolve ( you can read more on that here ).
But in the short term, the RFU-run Premier 15s - formed in 2017 - is considered the best place for Wales Women's internationals to ply their club trade due to its standard. It's little wonder, then, that Bristol and Gloucester are the two highest-favoured clubs among the women in red, who mostly commute to and from Wales for club duties.
"They have a huge impact, not only in the way they play but obviously their personalities," Ward tells WalesOnline. "You know when the Welsh have arrived because they’re loudest and they bring a huge amount of energy to the squad, but they also bring a huge amount of rugby knowledge. Everyone from Wales knows you grow up watching and playing rugby.
"To have that mini Wales is excellent and we massively embrace it. They’re a big part of what we’re trying to do and they’re littered throughout our team, and we’ve still got a couple on the sidelines who would be threatening in the team on any other given day."
At the start of this season, Bristol had just four full-time professionals in their ranks in England's contracted players, but they were joined at the turn of 2022 by a cohort of Welsh players who had put pen to paper on historic WRU contracts. "They do one week fully with Wales, a hybrid week with club and then a full week with club," Ward explains of the full-timers. "I obviously look forward to the full weeks with club because then I get to spend some time with the players, get to do one-on-one stuff with Keira Bevan, jackal technique with Alisha Butchers, No. 8 with Siwan. It’s all those little bits that being in that professional environment, having that time to do, it’s just going to take your game to the next level. I can’t wait until everyone has those contracts where they can all be professional in recovery, as well as on-field. There’s no point giving these players contracts just to flog the players."
Wales finished the recent Women's Six Nations in third place, their best finish in the tournament since 2009. It was no coincidence that the top half of the table featured teams who have had either consistent or recent investment into their women's programmes, with England having gone professional in 2018 and France being semi-professional for a number of years.
"As a foundation going into the World Cup, there’s so much that can be taken from those games," Ward says. "It’s really exciting for Welsh rugby now and everyone’s seen what that little bit of investment can do. Imagine a little bit more investment. I think it could be the start of big things for Welsh rugby."
While the commuting element may not be ideal for everyone, playing in England can have its advantages for the Wales-based contingent, Ward believes. "Being a Welsh rugby player comes with a lot of pressure, which I didn’t realise until I was in this environment. Everyone’s talking about rugby, it’s a little bit like a mini New Zealand where everyone knows exactly what’s going on. So for those guys, to just come and play and take that pressure off playing internationally, I think it’s been great."
Bristol face Exeter Chiefs in the Premier 15s semi-final this afternoon (4.30pm kick-off), with Wales' Kayleigh Powell named at full-back, Courtney Keight on the wing, Keira Bevan at scrum-half and an all-Welsh back-row made up of Alisha Butchers, Manon Johnes and Lillicrap. On the bench are Wales second-row Natalia John and fly-half Elinor Snowsill. Jasmine Joyce is ruled out for the remainder of the season due to shoulder surgery ahead of the World Cup, while the squad also boasts Welsh hooker Robyn Lock, centre Megan Webb - cousin to Rhys and Tommy Reffell - and Wales U18s international Anwen Owen.
"We were eighth last season. For us, [the target] was to challenge for top four," said Ward. "We’d always had that target. It's all credit to the girls, they’ve actually gone out and won lots of games of rugby to put us in this situation. My challenge for the girls coming back in [after the Six Nations] was do we want to limp into the play-offs or do we want to steam it and absolutely sprint it to the play-offs? You’ll know what they said. They want to go in firing.
"For me, it’s already been a successful season but actually now, but why not go and win it? Why not go and give it a real good go? I'm loving it."
Moving forward, Wales and Scotland bosses have already gone on record to say they would like to put their own teams in the Premier 15s, a proposal which has already been rejected by RFU bosses from a Welsh perspective. United Rugby Championship bosses also confirmed in recent weeks they want to set up a women's tournament.
So, does Ward want to see more teams added to the Premier 15s from the likes of Wales and Scotland? Well, he feels there are two elements to that discussion.
"I love the Allianz Prem as it is. I love the fact we’ve got Scottish and Welsh players in there. I think it’s the best league in the world for women’s rugby. I think there’s definitely the talent within Wales to put those teams together."
But where those teams would play is another matter. "Whether or not they could then come into the Allianz Prem is a different conversation and way above my pay grade so I’ll leave that to the people who can make that," he said. "The talent in Wales is clear for all to see. We’ve seen it with the Six Nations. It’s now about putting in those structures to bring that talent to the top.
"It’s really hard to say ‘put a team in the Prem’ 15s because basically it would be Wales. It would be the Welsh in the Prem 15s. I think that’d be a bit harder. You’ve seen what happened with Jaguares with the Argentinian team and Super Rugby. It didn’t quite have that effect that they wanted to in terms of that full pathway."
But Ward accepts "ideally, you’d have four Welsh regions and mirror the men’s, use their facilities, really maximise it and then go into that United Rugby Championship which I think could be massively beneficial, not only to Wales but obviously to Scotland and Ireland as well."
- Bristol Bears Women's Premier 15s semi-final on Sunday, May 22 (4.30pm kick-off) is being broadcast live on BT Sport, BBC website and premier15s.com
