Late call-up Megan Davey backs Wales to shed record-low ranking with winning mindset

Megan Davey has dismissed any suggestion that Wales carry a losing mentality ahead of their WXV Global Series campaign, even as the side sits at a record-low 13th in the World Rugby rankings following a winless run stretching back to July 2025.

The 26-year-old Loughborough Lightning scrum-half was added to head coach Sean Lynn’s squad in late August, arriving in camp three weeks after the rest of the group. Despite the awkward entry into an already-established environment, Davey says the intensity she found there left her in no doubt about the team’s ambitions.

“The mindset is always that we’re going to win — it’s how we get there,” Davey said. “There’s definitely not a losing mentality in this team. In training, it is the hardest training that I’ve ever been involved in. There’s no doubt that they’re not training at that intensity to win games.”

Wales’s only Test victory under Lynn came against Australia’s Wallaroos last July, and the team’s ranking dipped to its lowest point since World Rugby’s system was introduced. A 34-17 win over the Barbarians at Allianz Stadium in June offered some encouragement ahead of home fixtures against South Africa and the USA Women’s Eagles, with a two-Test trip to Japan to follow in October.

Davey, the leading appearance-maker in the JAECOO Premiership Women’s Rugby with 124 outings for Loughborough Lightning, was first named in a Wales squad during the 2026 Guinness Women’s Six Nations — qualifying through her grandfather — but did not earn a debut cap on that occasion. Her omission from Lynn’s original WXV selection stung, but she channelled the disappointment productively.

“I was a bit sad that I wasn’t in the squad to begin with, but you’ve just got to crack on with what you’re doing,” she said. “I was really excited but I was really nervous. I knew they’d all been in for like three weeks and there’s always that thing when you walk into an environment that’s already established — you’re like, how am I going to do? But I was raring to go. I was really happy to get an opportunity and take it.”

With a competitive half-back group to break into and a first senior cap still to claim, Davey faces a steep challenge — but her arrival in camp suggests Lynn is casting a wider net as Wales look to arrest a slide that has taken them to unfamiliar territory in the global standings.