Dallavalle enjoying life after captain's armband
Hannah Dallavalle admits she was disappointed to be relieved of the Wales women captaincy, but is starting to enjoy a more relaxed role around camp. The 28-year-old took over the armband from Siwan Lillicrap at the 2022 Rugby World Cup, describing it as one of the "greatest honours" of her Test career.She led Wales to a top three Six Nations finish in 2023, but two Wooden Spoon campaigns followed and a player contract dispute which almost forced her to quit.Head coach Sean Lynn said he needed fresh leadership going into the Rugby World Cup and named Alex Callender and Kate Williams as co-captains.Dallavalle said she was "disappointed to start" but is beginning to see life beyond the armband.
"It has been a tough transition, people don't see what's happened behind closed doors," she said. "It was Lynny's decision to make that change, I had no control over it. It was a decision that I didn't take lightly but I'm working on myself, concentrating on my own performance and what I bring to the team."Unless you've done captaincy before, you don't really know what the demands of a captain are off the field, maybe that took a toll."I've definitely got more time now. I'm actually going out with the girls to the beach and stuff. "I'm still putting the work in for rugby, but I'm definitely much more relaxed off the field."
One of Lynn's reasons to relieve Dallavalle was that he did not see the player he coached during his time in charge at Gloucester-Hartpury, but she said it is a difficult comparison to make as they are a different team."I don't know if I'm going to get a Gloucester-Hartpury performance in a Welsh shirt, you've got different people around you, different coaches, different environment," Dallavalle said, but is hopeful they can taste the same success.Lynn's first win came last Saturday with Wales running out 21-12 winners in the first of two Tests against Australia.And it was fitting that Dallavalle scored the decisive try in what was a statement win against a higher ranked team just four weeks out from the World Cup."I said to Lleucu [George] on the bus, 'set me up today, it's been a while' and she delivered, she was outstanding. It was her try really, I did the easy part of finishing it."Dallavalle was also full of praise for Callender who was outstanding on her captaincy debut. "Alex is a world class player, she leads by example and performed really well, I'm glad that she went well," she said.
Last weekend's team sheet may have caused a few double takes as Dallavalle had continued to play under her maiden name Jones after getting married last summer.She said the decision to take her husband's name had nothing to do with losing the captaincy, it was pure coincidence."It's nothing exciting really. My passport was expiring and I didn't want to pay extra to change my name earlier, that's the real reason behind it," she joked."It was a nice little surprise for Deano because he didn't know whether I was going to take the Dallavalle name, but it was always in the pipeline. "It just happened to come at the time the captaincy changed and everyone thought it was because of that, but it's actually because I didn't want to pay to change my passport until it expired."
Wales will have one final run out in Sydney before their World Cup opener against Scotland in Manchester on 23 August."The morale is really good, but we've still got to work hard and get our heads down ready for Friday because I'm sure Australia are going to come out and battle," added Dallavalle."It's an exciting week and we've got to back it up now."Dallavalle is eyeing her third World Cup, with Lynn set to announce his squad early next month."I'm only 28 so there could be another one if I keep going well," she said. "The growth in the game is brilliant, the support is unreal. It's probably the closest to home World Cup so it will be brilliant, it's just over the bridge for family and friends."
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