Jones blasts 'disgraceful' Wales contract dispute

The Wales captain, Hannah Jones, has said that the squad's experience in a contract controversy last year was "disgraceful" and made her contemplate international retirement.

- Sarah Rendell

Allegations emerged in October that the Welsh Rugby Union had threatened to withdraw from the 2025 Rugby World Cup if the women's team did not sign new contracts on offer. Jones says the negotiations last year were difficult "from day one" and that communication with the WRU was a "big issue", with some of her players "becoming unwell physically and mentally" because of the process.

The WRU, which denied some of the allegations made against it in the autumn, has since apologised to the squad for how negotiations were handled. The governing body conducted an independent review and admitted "serious failings" while the Wales coach Ioan Cunningham also left by mutual consent.

Jones said: "The thing for me was who was coming in next? Who was going to be my next coach? That was career-wise, whether I was going to continue to play or whether I was going to take some time back to think about playing national rugby.

"The stress of the contracts and what we'd been through as a squad was disgraceful and disappointing. Hopefully what the players went through will never happen again. But yeah, it [giving up] was in the back of my head."