WALES captain Siwan Lillicrap has paid tribute to her late grandfather and ‘biggest fan’ who passed away in the build up to Sunday’s dramatic Rugby World Cup victory over Scotland.
Lillicrap came off the bench in Whangarei helping the side advance into the Scottish half through staying patient, showing their skills to keep hold of the ball and earning that vital penalty for scrum half Keira Bevan to kick the winning points almost six minutes into second half stoppage time.
There was understandably an outpouring of emotion as the players celebrated with their families in the aftermath of the side’s opening Pool A victory at the Semenoff Stadium, but for Siwan, the 18-15 victory provided even greater meaning following the death of her grandfather Arthwel Williams early last week.
“It was probably one of the toughest weeks I have had to face in my life,” said Siwan.
“My grandfather was my biggest supporter and my best friend too. But he would have wanted me to play.
“As my Mum said, he had the best view in the house on Sunday, watching over us. And I am sure he would have been willing that kick to go over in the end.
“Everyone has been fantastic out here and hopefully we did him proud. I’ve got all my family back home supporting us and my Mum is out here. That makes it so special.”
Wales moved back to Auckland following Sunday’s win to prepare for this weekend’s second pool game, against hosts New Zealand at the Waitakere Stadium.
The game is already a 4,000 sell out with the Black Ferns hoping to build on their 41-17 victory over Australia at Eden Park.
“It’s very exciting,” said Siwan. “There can be no better game than facing home opposition on their turf.
“It has been fantastic so far out here in New Zealand and now we get to face the Black Ferns. It’s just brilliant. We will embrace it and having reviewed the Scotland game, we must now turn our attention to Sunday.
“We can take a lot of belief from the Scotland game. But it also showed that we have plenty to work on.
“It is always a great occasion against the Black Ferns. We played them in 2017 in the Pool stages of the World Cup and if I remember rightly, we took it to them in the first half of that game. Now we need to make sure we play for a full 80.
“We had a training game against them last autumn in London and that was a great exercise.
“It will be like a Cup final. And the more we can take out of these games, the better position we will be in to challenge for a place in the quarter finals. And ultimately that is our aim.
I thought our fans were fantastic in Whangarei. They outdid the Scottish fans and that was great for us. They got behind us and we are so grateful to all of them.
“I know everyone is tuning in back home too and to come off the field and see all those messages from home was really nice for us. We just ask that people keep getting behind us because it means a lot to us out here in New Zealand.”
Siwan and the team know exactly where they need to improve ahead of the weekend.
“I thought we started really well against Scotland, but we dropped off in the middle a bit. And we should have taken more of the opportunities that we created. That is something we need to work on.
“I also felt our discipline almost cost us. But then we found ourselves locked at 15-15 with the clock in red and I thought we showed the heart of this team to win the ball back off the kick-off, go through all of those phases and for Keira to nail that kick at the end.
“The win was massive for us and though we made it hard for ourselves I think it shows not only the courage of Keira but the desire and character of the team.
“I am very proud of the team. For me, I had a different role on the day which meant coming off the bench and bringing some experience. Hopefully I achieved that.
“It was certainly one of those games where your heart was in your mouth for long periods. But we did it.
“Moving forward, hopefully we don’t leave it that long and we can win games a bit earlier.
“That would be better for all the supporters watching too, because it was very tense.”
