Why former Wales boss Cunningham is excited to sing Scottish anthem

In Round 1 of the 2024 Guinness Women’s Six Nations, Ioan Cunningham was leading Wales against Scotland in Cardiff.

Fast forward two years to this week, he is now preparing a Scotland squad to travel to the Welsh capital and for another tournament opener. This time at the Principality Stadium. This time as an assistant.

They say that time does not stand still. That is certainly the case in elite sport. Scotland’s 20-18 win at Cardiff Arms Park in March 2024 set Wales up for a sixth-place finish in that year’s edition of the Championships.

Four wins out of 11 in that calendar year alongside off field issues such as contracting problems made it a turbulent time for Wales and Cunningham left that November after three years at the helm of his home country.

Since then, he has been a head coach with Fiji and led them to a famous 28-25 triumph over his former employers at last year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup in England.

When Scotland were then reshaping their coaching team after their quarter-final exit to the Red Roses, Cunningham spoke to Scottish Rugby about the head coaching role, but when former USA Women’s Eagles coach Sione Fukofuka took on the position, he took up a post as a senior assistant at Oriam.

The two of them are working alongside new forwards coach Dave Butcher who was part of Canada’s set up at the Women’s Rugby World Cup and Cunningham, 43, said: “I was speaking about the head coach role with David Nucifora [Scottish Rugby performance director], but then we spoke about other options and opportunities within growing Scottish Rugby.

“Hopefully having the two of us on board [Fukofuka and himself] along with Dave Butcher is quite a strong combination to make Scottish rugby bigger, better and stronger moving forward.

“As a new coaching group we are getting to know each other every day in terms of how we operate and our strengths and our ‘work ons’ as coaches.

“We just enjoy each other’s company and kicking ideas around. We have come in from different backgrounds, different experiences.

“For example, Dave was at a World Cup final last year with Canada and he’s been in Canada for about 10 years so he’s learned a lot of different ways of playing.

“I’m fortunate enough to have had experiences from Fiji and Wales. Sione’s had experience in the USA and Australia. There’s a lot of great experiences coming together.

“From a personal point of view, I’ve got a Scottish connection. My grandfather was from Kilmarnock. I had an opportunity to play for Scotland Under-21s men when I was 19, but I decided to stay with Wales.

“This is a bit of a personal thing for me and I’m super proud to have this opportunity to work with Scotland. I’m just really looking forward to the first match now and the anthem if I’m honest.”

Two years ago ahead of this fixture Cunningham would have been singing Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau [Land of My Fathers] with gusto. This time around he will be belting out Flower of Scotland.

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11 Apr 26

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And with the Round 1 game being played in the magnificent 74,500 capacity Principality Stadium, Cunningham returning to face his former charges and two sides meet having always produced intriguing contests. This is a game not to be missed.

“I’ve obviously done a lot of analysis of Scotland over the last four or five years – obviously, I always looked at Scotland through a different lens in the past – but it’s great to be with them now,” Cunningham, whose Fiji side pushed the Scots hard before a 29-15 defeat at the Women’s Rugby World Cup last year, explained.

“In recent times to get to know the players on a personal level and to start working with them has been great and I just feel very privileged to have this opportunity to work with such a great group of players. They are a talented bunch.

“It’s fantastic that the players will get a chance to play at the Principality. It is one of the best stadiums in the world and I’m really looking forward to it.

“They’re a tight group of players in this squad who are really, really proud to wear the Scottish shirt and we want to build on that and what they have done before. We’re talking about thriving under that thistle which is something that we’re going to push hard in our cultural environment.

“As a team, we want to get above where the team finished last year [fifth] and push for third spot in the Six Nations. To get to that position obviously requires you to target three wins so we are obviously working hard towards that.

“In a year after a World Cup things change and we have to make sure we are able to kick on. We’ve looked quite deeply into Scotland’s game from 2025 in the Six Nations and the World Cup and what was really good in their game.

“There’s a lot of strengths in their game and it is now how we build on that with some tweaks, maybe changing a little bit of the philosophy around how we attack a little bit wider and how we become a bit different off set piece as well as building defensively which is an area I focus on.”