The Welsh Rugby Union's interim performance director Huw Bevan believes Wales Women can reach the semi-finals of the World Cup by 2029 but has warned it needs to start making more money to become sustainable.
In Wales, the women's game has been growing steadily since it turned professional in January 2022 thanks to then-performance director Nigel Walker, who oversaw the handing out of 12 full-time WRU contracts and around a dozen part-time deals after a number of years of contracts being spoken about by his predecessors. Now, 25 players are on full-time deals for 2023.
Under head coach Ioan Cunningham, Wales enjoyed have enjoyed two successful Six Nations campaigns, finishing third both last year and this year behind runaway leaders England and France, making significant improvements from campaign to campaign by becoming fitter, stronger and more skilful. They also reached the quarter-finals of last autumn's World Cup, being knocked out by world champions New Zealand.
