Carys Cox inspires Wales to WXV play-off victory against Spain

Wales ran in five unanswered tries in a stunning second-half performance at Cardiff Arms Park to surge to WXV 2 2024 qualification with a 52-20 victory against Spain.

The result also confirms the hosts’ place at Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 and gives Ioan Cunningham’s side something to build on following their disappointing Women’s Six Nations campaign.

Wales – who appeared in the inaugural WXV 1 tournament last year – finished bottom of the Six Nations table in April, with only one win from their five matches, meaning they needed to beat Spain on Saturday to avoid playing in the third level this September and October.

A sublime second-half hat-trick from winger Carys Cox helped Wales book their tickets to South Africa, having turned around only a point in front at 21-20. The heartbroken Spanish will console themselves with a place in WXV 3 in Dubai.

It looked as though Wales would canter to victory early on in Cardiff as tries from Alex Callender and Abbie Fleming were converted by Keira Bevan to put the hosts 14-0 up.

Spain refused to buckle, though, and took advantage of Cox’s time in the sin bin to score 15 unanswered points of their own and take the lead.

Following an Amalia Argudo penalty, Spain scored tries through Ines Antolinez and Claudia Peña. Argudo had set up the first of those with an electric break, and she converted prop Antolinez’s score too.

Player of the Match Alisha Joyce-Butchers scored her first try of the match to help Wales regain the lead shortly after Peña’s effort. But there was still time before half-time for Claudia Perez to bring Spain within one point with a fine finish from a lineout move.

Cox made amends for her earlier yellow card within six minutes of the restart, breaking through three attempted tackles to score her first try of the match.

Following a TMO check, Joyce-Butchers was awarded her second score 10 minutes later, before Bevan added her fifth successive conversion, to put the Wales 35-20 in front.

And in the final quarter, the home side took full advantage of their visitors’ tiring legs with Cox crossing the whitewash twice more, either side of a Jenny Hesketh try.

“It feels great,” Joyce-Butchers said after the match. “I feel like we really deserved that today. We’ve worked really hard for it.

“I know we haven’t together long as a group. It’s great to get a win and move on swiftly from that Six Nations.”

Victory capped a memorable day for Joyce-Butchers, who had earlier become an aunty.

She added: “It’s been a great build up this week. I think we’ve shown glimpses there of what we can do when we keep the ball and we have the ball in our hands.

“We’ll definitely look to kick on in WXV 2 with that as well.”