How has this season gone for you? It’s been really good! I got brought into the Celtic Challenge with Gwalia Lightning and not long after I got pulled into the senior Wales training squad for the Guinness Women's Six Nations. It was good for my development, especially learning a new position, since I've converted from back row to prop. It’s a massive difference, but I am enjoying it.
It was surreal when I first went in [to the senior Wales camp]. I was nervous, but they were all so lovely and welcoming. Learning different things from people and picking up little things that you wouldn’t have done before. You learn how hard they work, which you then take back into U20s camps.
Tell us about your rugby background. When my brother was playing and my dad was coaching, I went down to a session when I was five or six and I absolutely loved it. I would go down to every session. My rugby idol is Taulupe Faletau - I loved watching him play. I played for Dunvant RFC in Swansea for eight years before moving to a girls team, and I haven't stopped since.
What's it been like turning out for Gwalia Lightning? It was surreal playing with internationals. Training alongside them was just unreal. We had Bryonie King as our captain. That step up was great to experience. You are playing quality games every week with a higher training standard, which helps when called into international camps like the ones we've had for the Women's Summer Series.
The Women's Summer Series is in Parma this year. Is that something you're looking forward to? Definitely. I have done so much training at loosehead now, it will be exciting to see where I’m at within games and when I’m under pressure.
What are you most looking forward to? We have an amazing team, we are all great players but even better people, and it’s just nice to be in the environment with your friends. But when boots hit the grass, you're pushing each other and pushing standards because you want to get better. I hope that we can put together a performances that shows how hard we have been working.
Testing yourself against players from other nations is important, isn't it? 100%. Seeing what France did to England, and how in the Six Nations U18 festivals at Wellington College, it was a close score. It will be interesting to see how well we do against the best. That’s why you play rugby: to test yourself against the best.
As well as being in Wales' leadership group, what role do you think the Women's Summer Series will play in your development? Just being in camp for this series has made me mature a lot, which I think is down to my positional change as I’ve had to concentrate even more. It will be a test of where I’m at and what I need to improve on because you can always improve.
It will be interesting to see how my scrummaging has come on. For those who aren’t with a club in the PWR competition, you aren’t getting regular game time, whereas with the 20s you now get that structure. If this wasn’t in place we would not be playing. It’s huge: without this we would have four to five months without playing any rugby.
What would a successful Women's Summer Series look like to you? As a team, we're concentrating on us and what we are doing. If we are doing everything right and meeting our goals, then that is successful. That’s our biggest thing: we want to meet these markers, if we are not doing that then that’s not going to be a good result for us. For me personally, it would be to see how far I can push myself.
