William posted images of three players with the following note, signed with his personal “W”: “”Good luck to Wales Women as they kick off their Rugby World Cup campaign against Scotland today!” in both Welsh and English. And then, as a special touch, he wrote a phrase only in Welsh that can be translated as “Good Luck Wales, go for it!” People reported earlier this year that William is learning conversational Welsh; that tracks, as he’s been frequently posting Welsh language messages.
Overall, heartfelt sports fandom is a big thing at Kensington palace, what with William mugging at soccer matches. So it’s no surprise that the day before Will’s note, Kate posted a note cheering on her team, the Red Roses. (That’s the team she began championing after Prince Harry stepped back from royal duties in 2020.) Kate’s team represents England and triumphed over Team USA in a thrashing victory: final score 69 to 7). Well done Kate, and Red Roses.
Not so happily, despite his multilingual shout-out, William’s Welsh team was overcome, losing to Scotland by 30 points (Wales head coach Sean Lynn told BBC One: “I’ve just said to the players that’s just not good enough. We said we wanted to be physical and Scotland, credit to them, bullied us off the park.”) The World Cup womens’ games are not over, however, so there are a few more matches for the women from Wales to redeem themselves.