Wales Women Under-18 Head Coach Liza Burgess has named her coaching team – which includes Warriors Women General Manager Josh Payne – for the upcoming international programme.
Burgess, who will leave Warriors at the end of the season to work for the WRU full-time, has named former Wales international Catrina Nicholas-McLoughlin as her Backs Coach, while Gloucester-Hartpury Backs Coach Oli Wilson will head up the defence and attack roles, with Wales Women captain Siwan Lillicrap providing skills coaching. Payne will take on the role of Team Manager for Wales Women Under-18s.
“I’m incredibly excited about this coaching team. They have a wealth of experience and coaching knowledge between them, along with playing at international level in terms of Cat and Siwan,” Burgess said.
“I played alongside Cat and coached alongside her at Crawshays. She is a Level 4 coach and has a huge amount of experience in the male and female game.
“Oli Wilson is an experienced Backs Coach at Gloucester-Hartpury in the Alianz Premier 15s and he specifically works with this age group as head of academy at Hartpury so he brings great knowledge and background in performance rugby.”
“We are delighted to have Siwan on board. As captain of Wales, she will be a fantastic role model for our players. She has been head coach at Swansea University and will be delivering skills to our players around her playing and training commitments.”
The coaching team will select a Wales Women Under-18 squad following the remaining two rounds of regional matches (Sunday at Merthyr RFC and Sunday 20 February at Cardiff Arms Park). A Wales Women Under-18 squad is then expected to compete against other Six Nations teams in the spring, details to be confirmed.