| Venue:RDS Arena, Dublin Date:Saturday, 26th March Kick-off: 16:45 GMT |
| Coverage: BBC Red Button, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra, BBC Radio Wales & BBC Radio Cymru, live text commentary on the BBC Sport website & app. |
Jasmine Joyce, Olympic Sevens star and Wales wing talks about the excitement surrounding Wales’ Six Nations with professional rugby players. She also discusses what it’s like to be the most prominent woman in women’s Rugby.
I am excited for the Six Nations. Not only are the contracts exciting, but it is also a World Cup Year.
Camp has the best atmosphere and culture for quite some time. Credit to the coaches and staff for making it so enjoyable. We can be ourselves on the pitch and that should show in our games.
The results of last year’s Six Nations were not the best, but it is clear that we are prepared and ready to perform.
We had only three games in 2021. This was the first time that the Six Nations has ever been held as an entire tournament at this time of the calendar year.
We are improving as a team and we will continue to train hard. We hope to win our first game against Ireland.
How to manage expectations
After we became professionals, a lot of people have put pressure on our shoulders. Although we do have full-time athletes and should be doing better, people need to realize that we are only full-time since January.
It doesn’t take too long to prepare for such a large event, especially when you consider the fact that teams like England and France have been working full-time for years.
The coaches, I must say, have been amazing.
We have received tremendous support from our squad since turning professional. We hope to make them proud, and do something for them.
Tweet for change
While I am not sure if my tweet in September about returning to work after the World Sevens Series made any difference to us getting contracts for them, I know they were already looking at contracts.
However, I felt I had no choice but to speak up because I was a professional runner for two years. I wanted the Welsh team to be able to share that experience with the girls, especially during such a big World Cup year.
Although I wish it was, we are in a good position now.
It has been a great experience and we are so grateful to be able to train full-time.
Being Jaz
Many of us feel pressure to do our best and place pressure on others. It can be difficult at times.
People may expect me to do something, score every ball I receive. However, I am not always able to do this.
I get marked quite often by teams, just like with other fast players in other teams. When I get the ball, I feel that there are lots of people watching me.
We can train and play together better, so they can pass the ball to me and my back three.
We have a very threatening backline. I believe we want to do some damage.
Six Nations targets and playing “sexy rugby”
We would love to have three wins but performance is more important for us than results.
France and England are great teams. They are better than the rest of us but have been playing full-time for much longer.
Wales will win any game, and that is not a knock on it. All of us are competitive rugby players.
Our autumn series was a great success. We beat South Africa and Japan, and gave Canada, one the best teams in the world, something to look back on.
While I was in Dubai, I saw the Canada match and thought, Wow, this is amazing. We were playing some great rugby.
Although we lost some time in the last 20-30 minutes, we have been working hard on our fitness. We’re all stronger, faster, and fitter now so we can perform for 80 minutes.
We want to be dominant and fast, without giving away too much. We want to play some very sexy rugby.
Cake and competition
Ioan is our head coach [Cunningham]We had a lot of fun with our Broncos group the other day. It’s basically running. We go to the 20 and return, the 40, and the 60, and so forth.
It was obvious that he really wanted to defeat us. Alisha was next to him [Butchers]Alex Callender and he was trying beat them.
It was funny to see him participate with us. But it was also amazing that he doesn’t take himself too seriously.
He did well, he ended in the middle somewhere.
The coffee truck went on to training. It is small things like these that I love. When we can sit down and relax with each other, it makes us feel like a family.
Ioan was the first to get his coffee and cake. We were all like, “hey, we’re the players Ioan.” He is brilliant and has given the squad so much energy, just like the other coaches.
We are sure to make them proud.
Jasmine Joyce spoke to Ceri Coleman-Phillips, BBC Sport Wales.