Wales coach Ioan Cunningham has urged supporters to remember how far his team have come since he took over as head coach amid a dreadful Women’s Six Nations tournament.

His side are bottom of the tournament after losing all four matches so far, the most recent of which was Sunday’s 40-0 defeat at home to France.

It was the first time Wales have failed to score a point at home since a 45-0 defeat to Ireland in the 2021 competition which led to Cunningham’s appointment and professional contracts for players.

Until the last six months, that had contributed to an improvement in performances and individual players.

Despite their poor run extending to seven defeats in a row, Cunningham says Wales “have come a long way” since turning professional in 2022.

“This team was 13th in the world, they hadn’t won a game in two and a half years,” he said.

“We’ve still got L plates on when it comes to professionalism, people have got to understand that.”

Cunningham stressed before the match that he was looking for a better performance from his team after their shock 36-5 defeat in Ireland.

He said “it was a much better performance” than last weekend’s 36-5 loss, where Wales simply “didn’t turn up”.

“If the effort is there and the next action is there we’ve got something to build on,” he said.

“I thought that was there today in abundance.

“We fought for every inch, we went through some good attacking sets, just that clinical edge that we are still searching for, but I am confident if we can produce some plays like that against Italy next week, we can finish this championship on a high.”

Captain Hannah Jones echoed her coach’s sentiments, saying she was “proud” of her side’s performance.

“I’m proud of the girls and the work that they showed today, we put up a fight against one of the best in the world,” said the Wales captain.

“We will reflect and work out how we can be a bit more clinical in the 22.

“I thought we played some great stuff out there. We played with the ball much more and finding our feet in terms of our shape.”

Wales face Italy at the Principality Stadium instead of their normal Cardiff Arms Park home on Saturday, looking to register a much-needed first win of the tournament.

“We’re going next door next week, and we’re looking forward to that,” said Jones.