Women’s Six Nations: Wales enjoy record crowds, rising stars and highest ranking

Former Wales women coach Chris Horsman:

“The programme, the players, everything has moved forward. It has been such an impressive and important tournament.

“We have had record crowds, three bonus-point victories, the emergence of new players, more contracts, it’s just positive, positive, positive.

“Credit to the coaches, credit to the girls and the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) for investing in the programme.

“It’s been a fantastic tournament with fantastic games and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.”

Former Wales centre Alecs Donovan:

“It’s amazing just to think how far they have come in a year.

“Girls growing up can now say ‘I want to be a rugby player’, that’s never happened before in Wales.

“It’s brilliant for the girls, I know how hard they work and the sacrifices everyone’s had to make and long may the rewards continue.”

Former Wales captain Siwan Lillicrap:

“We are seeing glimpses of how we compete with the best in the world, what we need to see is how we compete for 80 minutes and the more times we can play them the better we will be at that.

“Going into tier one of World XV with 15 points in the Six Nations – which is outstanding – will give us that opportunity to compete more often and close that gap.”

Former Wales full-back Dyddgu Hywel:

“Wales have come really far, it is so nice to see these players with contracts being professional rugby players.

“I’m so proud of them, they are getting that support from the union and it is exactly what they deserve.”