Lewis: Wales can bounce back

Despite being pooled with the world champions, New Zealand, Lewis says that a review of the year so far can help his squad to bounce back.

After Wales finished bottom of the 6 Nations table, Lewis admitted performances and results this year had knocked his side back but thata review after the competition had brought some clarity.

Out of adversity comes some tough but good learning experiences," he told Sportsbeat.

Year on year womens rugby is improving and if you stand still you actually go backwards. Maybe we were slightly complacent going into the Six Nations off what we had achieved in the past two years but that certainly wont be the case going forward.

"We had a full review involving individuals, the squad and the management. As coach I am responsible for their performances and I needed some self reflection on my own role afterwards. I would be lying if I said confidence has not taken a knock after the Six Nations so one of the things we need to do as a coaching group is build it back up again. Probably the main thing is that we have gone back to basics. We need to recapture the approach that brought us success in the first place.

The job for Lewis and his squad in London at the World Cup this year is a daunting one.

There they will face Australia, South Africa and defending champions New Zealand although Lewis, who has selected an initial 23-strong squad with three extra places up for grabs between six players, believes that some early wins could change his side's fortunes dramatically.

I think the structure of the competition is limiting when you are in group like ours. Having New Zealand in our group makes it very difficult to progress to the last four.

Unlike other pools we dont have a weak team in our group, so we know we effectively have to win all three games. We are not looking beyond our pool but if we win our first two games then who knows.

Lewis will get another chance to see his charges in action in June as his charges will face England in two training games behind closed doors.