Rugby evening headlines as ‘petulant’ Test hopeful slammed and Wales to face England this summer

Here are the latest rugby evening headlines on Monday, May 2.

Wales to face England in World Cup warm-up

Ioan Cunningham’s Wales side are set to face Women’s Six Nations champions England and tour to Canada this summer in preparation for the autumn Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.

Wales finished third in the Six Nations, an improved position compared to last year’s sixth, but were disappointed not to be able to convert pressure into a victory against Italy on Saturday in their finale.

However, Wales’ two wins against Ireland and Scotland and three defeats, England and France completing that trio, will have given Wales boss Cunningham and his coaching team plenty to ponder and work on ahead of pre-season beginning in July. Wales will be expected to improve on their performance and Six Nations 58-5 defeat to Grand Slam champions England, and their 24-7 defeat to Canada – ranked third in the world – last autumn.

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“At the start of July, we’ll have a real tough pre-season to set us up nicely for our prep for August with some sort of competitive games leading into that World Cup,” the Wales head coach said. “We’re going to go to Canada, spend a week out there, have a good training camp and play them. We’re also going to probably play England as well. Two real good games for us that’ll hopefully set us up nicely.”

The former Wales U2srcs boss said he is “there or thereabouts” when it comes to knowing what his World Cup squad will look like, although “there are still opportunities for players to put their hands up”.

But before then, there is remaining player contract business to be sorted with the Welsh Rugby Union. Twelve full-time contracts were awarded in January, followed by 12 part-time deals and up to three more are set to be handed out over the next month or so. As for the current contracts, they last for 12 months and Cunningham wants next year’s deals sorted before heading down under in October.

“There’s still some retainers to give out so we will look to do that as well as talking to players who are currently under contract, what do