Here are your rugby morning headlines for Monday, April 15.
Cunningham calls for big changes
Wales women coach Ioan Cunningham has called for change in the Welsh Rugby Union's plans for the game after a chastening defeat to Ireland.
Wales are winless in the Women's Six Nations, with their 36-5 defeat to Ireland in Cork the most disappointing as the Irish were winless in seven Six Nations matches before it and were easily beaten by Cunningham's side last year.
The reverse scoreline not only shows the growth of other nations after Wales' own development in recent years, but piles the pressure on former Scarlets coach Cunningham.
Cunningham insisted he was the "right person to lead this team", before citing the need for a meaningful women's domestic league in Wales.
That goes against what the WRU believe can work, with their vision being the best players plying their trade in England - saving money for the WRU to spend on the national side.
“I think we’ve reached a point now where there is so much good talent coming through in Wales and we’ve got nowhere for them to play, and that is something that we’ve got to seriously look at," said Cunningham.
SIGN UP: Get the new exclusive Inside Welsh rugby newsletter for full insight into what's really going on around all the big issues. This special offer will get you full access for the entire year for just £10 instead of £40.
“Playing at under-20s level is brilliant, but then where do they play after that?
“The Celtic Challenge is only a short window and for us to get into that top five in the world we have got to have a domestic competition that provides high-quality rugby for our players.
“It’s a long-term thing, it’s not going to happen overnight. There are players like Sian Jones, Gwennan Hopkins, Molly Reardon, where are they going to play?
“A big shift needs to happen for us to have the quality players playing regularly, as well as players that are performing well in the PWR, suddenly everything rises.”
LRZ starts work with Chiefs
Louis Rees-Zammit starts work with Super Bowl champions Kansas City Chiefs today.
The former Wales wing will link up with the NFL side after a brief return back to Wales to sort out his visa.
And as he returns Stateside, the work ramps up for Rees-Zammit as he aims to achieve his NFL dream. Being signed by Andy Reid's Super Bowl champions was the first step, but now the aim will be to make an impression with the Chiefs.
Today sees the NFL's offseason workout program begin for the majority of teams. Teams with new head coaches, which doesn't apply to the Chiefs, are allowed a slight head start on offseason workouts.
There are three phases to the offseason workouts. Phase one begins on opening day and continues for two weeks, being made up of team meetings, strength and conditioning and continued rehabilitation.
Phase two runs for the following three weeks and features walk-through practices, on-field drills and more from phase one. Finally, the final three weeks are for phase three and that features 7-on-7 or 11-on-11 practices. No live contact is ever allowed at any point in offseason training activities.
In recent years, Chiefs quarter-back Patrick Mahomes has hosted receivers for workouts down in Texas. He's done similar this year, with Rees-Zammit having posted images with the two-time MVP.
Exeter will learn plenty from hammering
Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter believes his young side can learn from their heavy Champions Cup quarter-final defeat to Toulouse.
The Chiefs, featuring Wales internationals Dafydd Jenkins and Christ Tshiunza, were no match for the French giants, with Toulouse running in seven second-half tries on the way to a 64-26 victory.
However, in the first season of a rebuild after numerous departures last year, Baxter believes the experience will stand them in good stead in years to come.
"There's huge areas of our game that we were very competitive and you couldn't say we weren't in the game, because at half-time, we certainly were," Baxter told ITV Sport afterwards.
"I think we've done so much in the game and the lads have experienced so many things in this game, they can only get better from it. What they have to do now is decide to get better from it and not let it be a dent or hiccup in the season. The season as a whole has been hugely successful. We've just got to try and maintain that momentum.
"That first-half performance and the way we stuck in it in the second half, it showed a lot of qualities which are going to be very important to us going forward as a team.
"I don't want to have any player at this club who thinks we don't want to be in knockout and big games.
"I want every player to come here wanting to be an international, wanting to play in cup finals and if we take a battering along the way, so be it. If you want to have that ambition, we as a club have to be here."
Ireland wanted to right wrongs against Wales
Ireland back-row Aoife Wafer says her team-mates were driven to perform against Wales by the desire to “show everyone who Ireland is and who we are”.
Wafer crossed for the opening try in the Women's Six Nations clash as Ireland put their previous defeat to Italy to bed in convincing fashion.
“We spoke all week about what our targets were and what our goals were going into this game,” said player of the match Wafer.
“We were quite disappointed with our performance against Italy, we knew we had them in a lot of opportunities and we wanted to come out and right those wrongs and show everyone who Ireland is and who we are.
“There are some really big positives from this game. There is also some stuff that we can take and really target in training.
“I’m sure our coaches have some sort of plan for us to go out and target England and for us to do a job. We’ll have our goals and if we hit those we’ll be in a good spot.”
