Welsh rugby looks for new year lift after grim 2024
Warren Gatland’s Wales men’s side have played 11 Tests in 2024 and lost 11 of them.
They have lost a total of 12 games in international competition, dating back to October 2023 when Wales lost to Argentina in the World Cup quarter-finals in Marseille.
It was the first time since 1937 that the national team had not won a Test match in a full calendar year and their world ranking was their lowest ever at 11th, just above Georgia.
The likes of Dan Biggar, Leigh Halfpenny and Tomas Francis are among the more experienced players after Louis Rees-Zammit lost to American Football players are retired and absent, while Dewi Lake, Jac Morgan and Taulupe Faletau, who is also missing through injury, is an inexperienced team led by Wales’ second player – Dafydd Jenkins, the youngest-ever captain with five Six Nations defeats.
This resulted in Wales finishing bottom of the table for the first time since 2003 and their first wooden spoon in 21 years.
After George North also announced his farewell to the national team and Ken Owens announced his retirement, he lost to South Africa at Twickenham in the summer, then lost 2-0 in the Australian series, and then failed to represent the national team in a game. The only win in the game he played was against the Queensland Reds.
A horrific autumn brought defeats to Fiji, Australia and South Africa, which extended Wales’ losing streak to more than ten games and into the record books.
Despite the dismal record, head coach Gatland is still in charge of the 2025 Six Nations. The competition begins against France in Paris on Friday, January 31, with captain Reque uninjured, one of the few success stories in a painful year.
Gatland is contracted until the 2027 World Cup, but with a success rate of just 25% in his second spell in charge, he has been given the chance of a Six Nations revival.
