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Courtney Keight: Wales, sand dune fitness and moving clubs
By Jeremy Inson
It has been quite the year for Courtney Keight already.
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A new international coach, a new international position, and a new club so far, with hopefully a first trip to Australia and a maiden World Cup to follow. First though, comes fitness, and Merthyr Mawr Warren National Nature Reserve.
Wales coach Sean Lynn identified fitness as one of his team’s biggest issues after they ended the Women’s Guinness Six Nations with five defeats and a bottom place finish, and he didn’t hold back in their June camp.
The reserve covers 840 acres or 340 rugby pitches and features the notorious Big Dipper dune. It is Wales’s highest at 600 metres, and the second highest in Europe. A relaxing walk by the sea it wasn’t.
“Pre-season is meant to be tough,” said Keight. “It was a very tough day but about working together as a team and pushing through and just giving us that extra percentage. When you think you’re done, you’re not done, and everything is harder on sand.
“We had lots of hill sprints, then working together to get a med ball to the top of the hill. Most of it was just based on how hard we can work and how well together we can work. It was a very good day and then we ended with a nice little barbecue at Llantwit Major Rugby Club and enjoyed each other’s company.”
That Lynn took his team for a barbeque is typical of a coach who likes to reward his team for hard work to encourage team spirit. Just ask his Gloucester-Hartpury players who he invited en masse to his house for an early Christmas dinner to lift spirits after a bruising defeat to Bristol Bears last November.
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After taking the job in late January, Lynn didn’t have much time to shape a side who lost four out of five in the 2024 Six Nations, and two out of three at WXV2, but he identified fitness as an obvious fix.
“Fitness has been the main thing for us,” Keight said. “We want to show how hard we can work for each other and for everyone else.
“The mindset going into this has been work hard, whether that’s running on the pitch, whether that’s in the dojo, and your mental resilience is tested. It has been a very, very tough but a beneficial pre-season.
“He’s really just laid down what he wants us to take into the World Cup. We’re just trying to identify how we can do it, and practice getting it done.”
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The 27-year-old featured in all five of Wales’ Six Nations matches this year. She came off the bench in the first two and then started the remaining three.
Until this season Keight had played all her test rugby as wing or fullback, just as she did for Bristol Bears. In the Six Nations though she was moved forward into the centres. It is another string to the bow of a player who came late to rugby.
Keight’s mother was a netball coach, so she was naturally drawn to that sport, and while she tried most, rugby didn’t feature until she began a degree in Criminology at the University of Swansea.
There she built a good rapport with her teammates, found coaches that believed in her, liked that the sport was for all shapes and sizes, but above all it was the contact element that she enjoyed.
“When I first started rugby, I was an outside centre,” she said. “When I came into the squad, I was more needed on the wing at the time, and then developed the back three skill set, and I’ve been there with Bristol.
“Being able to kind of put my mark down and putting my hand up for centre has been nice, because really, I’m a power player. I feel centre really utilises my strengths, but I’m still able to cover the other positions.
“There’s a bit more decision making, and it’s having to make those decisions close the line which is something I’ve been trying to develop.”
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Wales will soon head down under to face Australia on 26th July, and 1st August. It is a place that Keight hasn’t visited, and she is certainly not being presumptuous about her squad place, using “if” when discussing the tour and the World Cup that follows soon after their return.
Before then comes the small matter of visiting her new club, Sale Sharks, and a move to Greater Manchester.
She is one of a handful of household names to join the club who finished bottom of PWR, but who under new coach Tom Hudson have plans to challenge further up the table.
Her Bristol Bears teammate and England fly-half Holly Aitchison has moved north, as has England hooker Amy Cokayne, England second row Charlotte Fray, Scotland wing Rhona Lloyd, and Scotland second row Eva Donaldson.
“Now is the right time in my career to develop those decision making skill sets and little attacking kicks and things like that,” Keight said. “It’ll put me in good stead for Wales as well.
“I kept a close eye on Sale as the environment’s always been something that appealed a lot to me. Then when I could see they were looking to invest more on field as well and really put their hand up for climbing up the table, that was just a no brainer for me.
“I had some good conversations about moving up there, and experiencing a new city is so exciting as well. I’ve spoken to Tom, and it is probably a similar case to where I am now. I’ll cover a bit of the whole back line as I have been and see where I’m playing well and go from there.”
Despite her modesty, the likelihood is that the Tenby-raised Keight will be heading to Australia, and then the World Cup.
She has been a WRU fulltime contract holder since August 2023 and a firm fixture in the Welsh squad since returning from an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injury for the start of the 2024 Six Nations.
Wales begin their campaign against Scotland, and they also face the world number two side, Canada, and Fiji in Pool B.
Their preparations feature the carrot of two tests in Australia, one in Brisbane, and the second in Sydney the night before the third Lions test.
“I’ve never actually been to Australia, so it’s, it’s definitely a bucket list thing for me,” Keight said. “Traveling out there would be absolutely incredible. Fingers crossed.
“It’s definitely a boost for the whole women’s game. Just knowing that there’s people out there that are watching the Lions, so why not come and watch our game as well?
“The challenge that Australia pose is they’re extremely physical. We beat them in Rodney Parade prior to WXV, and then they came back and beat us, so it’s definitely going to be a tasty battle.
“That it’s something that we’re looking forward to, just to see where we are after this pre-season, and how hard we’ve worked. It is then the case of putting it on the pitch and seeing where we can go with that.
“It’s all about us and the family, how hard we can fight and what we can produce.”
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