TWO Amman Valley rugby players have made history by becoming the first full-time Wales Women's team members to be contracted by the Welsh Rugby Union.

Centre Hannah Jones and scrum-half Ffion Lewis, both former pupils at Ysgol Dyffryn Aman, are among the first cohort of players to sign professional contracts with the WRU.

Twelve players in total have accepted full-time contracts, which came into force this week, with the players and management based at the National Centre of Excellence.

Jones, with 32 caps, has been a lynchpin of the Wales side for a number of seasons, and the Gloucester-Hartpury star described it as "a dream come true" on being given the news.

"I was really shocked but really happy,” said the 25 year-old. “At the time I was told I was with my family so we got told we could tell our close friends and family.

“I was really excited. As cliché as it sounds, it is a dream come true for me. It was Ioan Cunningham, who told me. He phoned me and offered me the contract.

“We had a couple of days then to read through the contract, and whether to accept or decline so it was really exciting. I was shaking when he phoned me. I said yes straight away.

“It’s a dream come true. I’ve been waiting for this for a long while.

“I had a little bit of a taste of going full time with Great Britain. I’m very lucky, and very honoured to have a Welsh contract. It’s a massive privilege."

She added: “We’ll see steady but slow improvement. We’ve got the time now. The girls are not in full time work, we aren’t tired, and there’s more time to recover.

“You’ve got that contact time with the coach, you’ve got more time to deal with your skills, focus on your nutrition. So, I think fitness wise, and body fat, that type of area and skills there’ll definitely be an improvement going through to the Six Nations.”

Jones said it is going to be a juggling act studying to become a teacher and being a full time professional athlete, but she is relishing her change of circumstances.

“To be fair the university, Cardiff Met have been really supportive,” she said. “As soon as I told them I had been offered this contract they said go for it.

“Not many people get this opportunity, you are young, and you can go back to teaching any day. I was pretty landed I had that response. Once you have a gap we’ll fill you in somewhere, and I’ll be a qualified teacher then.”

Meanwhile Ffion Lewis, who has also been capped for Wales in rugby league, is taking a year’s sabbatical from her post as PE and Welsh teacher at Bishop Hedley School, Merthyr.

The Worcester Warriors number nine has been capped 17 times for her country in rugby union.

“I think it’s every player’s dream to commit 100 per cent to rugby," said the 25 year-old.

"For all of us to have this opportunity to really push ourselves is huge, and show the next generation that dreams can become a reality.”

Wales Women head coach Ioan Cunningham said: “It’s been a tough, but enjoyable process.

"Credit to all the players who have given us selection headaches. We are all now super excited to get the programme started.

"Talent and ability was the first element in our selection process and then the potential growth of the individual player along with their attitude.

“The conversations offering contracts were nice ones to have if often quite emotional.

"Some of the players had logistic issues to work through from a personal and professional perspective but it’s great to have them at the National Centre of Excellence now as we start to put the foundations in place for improvement.

"We have developed close working relationships with the players’ Allianz Premier 15s clubs and I’m confident our programme will prove beneficial for all parties.

"We had to be fairly clinical and even ruthless. We clearly have short and medium term goals in terms of the Six Nations and the Rugby World Cup but we also have an eye on developing the best players for the future of Welsh rugby.

"Overall, we have gone for the players we feel could make the biggest gains at this time, not forgetting the contribution the players who receive retainer contracts will also make to the programme.

"But having these players in full-time will give them a chance to develop all aspects of their game and become even better athletes and rugby players.”