Siwan Lillicrap: How tears of despair turned into tears of joy

Siwan Lillicrap with team mates — Siwan Lillicrap has been Wales captain since the 2019 autumn internationals

Just under 12 months ago, Wales captain Siwan Lillicrap cut a distraught figure in front of Six Nations television cameras.

She had come off injured in Wales' 45-0 drubbing at home to Ireland, with the winless streak stretching to two years and morale hitting an all-time low.

"That was probably one of the dampest moments as you're all aware," Lillicrap told BBC Sport Wales.

"That upset was [because] I didn't know the answer or what was next."

The result sparked a public outcry for the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) to invest more in the women's programme and a backlash from over 100 former internationals who said "enough was enough".

Nigel Walker's appointment as performance director proved a major catalyst for change. Six months into his post, Wales now have 24 contracted players - 12 fully professional and 12 on retainer deals.

Performance pathways are also well on their way to being reinstated.

Siwan Lillicrap: Wales Women captain sheds a tear as professional players are named

At the start of this year Lillicrap's tears were tears of joy as she was unveiled as a professional athlete .

"I got upset again in the press conference in January and that was because the reality of someone asking a question 'what would you say to the 17-year-old girl from Waunarlwydd who didn't have a team to play for?

"That was me. Look where I am now, everything is possible."

Lillicrap credits the WRU's chief executive Steve Phillips along with Walker in making "huge changes" in such a short space of time.

Now they look forward to their first Six Nations as a largely professional outfit - although Lillicrap will be hoping to overcome Covid-19 after testing positive 10 days before Wales' opener in Ireland on 26 March.

"The excitement is through the roof," Lillicrap said.

"Our skill set and everything else is flourishing over the last three months and hopefully everyone can see improvements.

"The other thing we want to measure ourselves on is how hard we work during those games and how hard we work for each other with that team first mentality."

With contracts comes expectation, but Lillicrap insists: "Performance is the main thing we're concentrating on.

"We're not putting pressure on wins... we need to remember that as players because we're only three months into this.

"Hopefully performance can turn into results, like we saw in the Autumns."