Date of birth | 1 January 1983 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Height | 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 109 kg (240 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Ioan Cunningham (born 1 January 1983) is a Welsh rugby union coach. He was appointed as head coach of the Wales women's national rugby union team in 2021. [1] [2] He has committed up to the 2025 Rugby World Cup. [3]
Cunningham played for Wales under-16, captained the under-18's and under-19's, and also featured for the under-21's teams. [1]
Cunningham played at number 8 and was captain of the Bridgend Ravens. He has also played for Llanelli RFC, Bridgend RFC, Llandovery RFC, and Carmarthen Quins RFC.
Cunningham was previously the Head Coach of Wales national under-20 team. [4] [5] He was the Scarlets forwards coach from 2015 to 2020. [1] [6] November 2024 saw the end of his position as head coach of the welsh National side. [7]
Bridgend is a town in the Bridgend County Borough of Wales, 20 miles (32 km) west of Cardiff and 20 miles (32 km) east of Swansea. The town is named after the medieval bridge over the River Ogmore. The River Ewenny also flows through the town. The population was 49,597 in 2021. Bridgend is within the Cardiff Capital Region which in 2019 had a population of approximately 1.54 million.
The Celtic Warriors were a rugby union team from Wales, who played in the 2003–04 Celtic League and the 2003–04 Heineken Cup following the introduction of regional rugby union teams in Wales. They were effectively a temporary merger of Pontypridd RFC and Bridgend RFC. The Celtic Warriors played just one season before disbanding.
The Ospreys, formerly the Neath–Swansea Ospreys is one of the four professional rugby union teams from Wales. They compete in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup. The team formed as a result of Neath RFC and Swansea RFC combining to create a new merged entity, as part of the new regional structure of Welsh rugby, that began in 2003. They are also affiliated with a number of local semi-professional and amateur clubs, including Welsh Premier Division sides Aberavon RFC, Bridgend Ravens, and original founding clubs Neath and Swansea. The regional area represented by the team has widely become known for rugby purposes as 'Ospreylia'.
Pontypridd Rugby Football Club is a rugby union team from Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. It won the Indigo Group Premiership for four consecutive seasons between 2012 and 2015 as well as the WRU National Cup on 6 different occasions, most recently in 2014.
Ryan Paul Jones is a Wales former international rugby union player who played at number eight, blindside flanker or second row. He was involved in three Grand Slam wins, in 2005, as captain in 2008, and 2012. He is one of a small group of Welsh players to have won three Grand Slams including Gerald Davies, Gareth Edwards, J.P.R. Williams, Adam Jones, Gethin Jenkins and Alun Wyn Jones.
The Cardiff Demons RLFC name has been used multiple times over the years. Firstly for a now-defunct men's rugby league side, and subsequently for a women's rugby league side who began in 2021.
Dunraven Brewery Field is an 8,000 capacity sports stadium in Bridgend, Wales. It is the home ground of the rugby union team Bridgend Ravens. Bridgend Athletic RFC often use the ground for their home matches, as well as the Ospreys who sometimes play at the ground, including their age grade teams.
Bridgend Ravens are a semi-professional rugby union club based in Bridgend, South Wales.
Michael Hook is a rugby union skills coach and Head coach at the Ospreys and Welsh Premiership team the Bridgend Ravens respectively. Hook played the position of fly-half. Brother of Wales international James Hook he has represented Wales U16S up to U21s playing in two U21 world cups as well as being a part of the Grand Slam winning U21s team in 2003.
The Wales women's national rugby union team first played in 1987. Wales plays in the Women's Rugby World Cup and the Women's Six Nations Championship.
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Paul Morgan was a Welsh professional rugby union and rugby league footballer, rugby union coach and cricketer, born in Pencoed. He played club level rugby union (RU) for Pencoed RFC, London Welsh RFC, Whitland RFC, Aberavon RFC, Llanharan RFC, Bridgend Ravens, Maesteg RFC, as a Centre, representative level rugby league (RL) for Wales, and at club level for Aberavon Fighting Irish, Bridgend Blue Bulls, Celtic Crusaders, as a wing or centre, coached club level rugby union (RU) for Neath Athletic RFC, and Aberavon Quins RFC. and played cricket for Pencoed Cricket Club (captain).
Matthew Silva is a Welsh rugby union coach, who is the current coach of RGC 1404. He is a former rugby union and professional rugby league footballer, who played from the 1980s to the 2000s. In rugby union (RU), he played as a number eight, fly-half, centre, wing and fullback. In rugby league (RL), he played as a fullback.
Rhys Edwards is a Level 4 Rugby Union coach. He is currently Director of Rugby at Loughborough University, overseeing all Rugby Union activities for both the Men's and Women's programmes. Between 2010 and 2016 he coached the WRU Women National Rugby Union Squad who competed in the Six Nations Championship and World Rugby Women's World Cup in 2014.
Richard Lancaster is a Welsh rugby union coach.
Luke Morgan is a Welsh rugby union player who plays for the Ospreys as a wing. Born in Bridgend, Wales, he was a Wales under-20 and Wales Sevens international.
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