WALES Women are preparing for the Six Nations without boss Rowland Phillips.

The former dual-code international was absent for Wales' autumn series with the Welsh Rugby Union stating that he was "taking time away" from his role.

Phillips is still missing, and the WRU have not given a detailed explanation, meaning that Chris Horsman, Geraint Lewis and Gareth Wyatt were in charge of the squad selection for the Six Nations.

They have named a squad of 33 that is captained by Siwan Lillicrap with Carys Phillips, Rowland's daughter, and number eight Sioned Harries notable absentees.

The experienced forwards miss out for the tournament, which starts against Italy at Cardiff Arms Park on Sunday, February 2, although Horsman insists that it does not signal the end of their 2021 World Cup hopes.

The squad contains one uncapped player in Scarlets prop Ruth Lewis and 11 players who made their Wales debuts during the five-match autumn campaign – backs Paige Randall, Megan Webb, Kayleigh Powell, Courtney Keight, Niamh Terry and Caitlin Lewis and forwards Georgia Evans, Abbie Fleming, Molly Kelly, Sarah Lawrence and Robyn Lock.

Jasmine Joyce, Hannah Jones and Alisha Butchers, who recently spent five months playing sevens for the University of Adelaide's Romas side, return to the squad along with Hannah Bluck and Lleucu George.

Horsman said that next year's World Cup was a major influence on selection.

"It is all about 2021," said the former Wales prop. "It is not just myself picking the squad with Geraint.

"It is the whole department sitting around and saying what is the best way to drive women's rugby forward. We are looking to build strength in depth and competition for the group.

"We need flexibility in the group and we have to look at a wider pool of players and get an understanding of where we are.

"We have looked at the make-up of the group and where we are going. We have made a selection based on what we feel we need to look at and achieve with the objective of 2021."

Wales finished fourth in last year's tournament but are hopeful of a strong campaign after encouraging wins against Scotland, Ireland and Crawshay's in November.

Horsman said: "We are pleased with the progress made during the autumn campaign, both in terms of creating fitness benchmarks and raising our performance standards.

"We made clear improvements in November and the togetherness shown was obvious throughout the month – from grinding out a gritty, last-minute win over Ireland to impressive performances in beating Scotland and Crawshay's along with a solid second-half against a strong Barbarians side.

"It was just the start but the performances showed there is much more to come from this squad."

Meanwhile, Wales have appointed former England sevens great Ollie Phillips to lead their programme in the shortened format.

"The 15s coaches are building something very special and I hope that the development of the sevens programme can only help and further harness the incredible amount of female talent that exists within Wales," he said.

"Women's rugby is growing at a rate of knots and with competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, HSBC World Series, Rugby World Cup and the Six Nations all in the calendar, it is hard not to get excited about the game and the opportunities that it is affording to any Welsh female athlete.

"It is the reason for my involvement and I cannot wait to see what the future holds for us."

Wales Women Six Nations squad

Forwards: Alisha Butchers, Alex Callender, Gwen Crabb, Georgia Evans, Abbie Fleming, Cerys Hale, Lleucu George, Cara Hope, Natalia John, Manon Johnes, Kelsey Jones, Molly Kelly, Sarah Lawrence, Bethan Lewis, Ruth Lewis, Siwan Lillicrap, Robyn Lock, Gwenllian Pyrs

Backs: Keira Bevan, Hannah Bluck, Hannah Jones, Jasmine Joyce, Courtney Keight, Kerin Lake, Caitlin Lewis, Ffion Lewis, Lisa Neumann, Kayleigh Powell, Paige Randall, Lauren Smyth, Elinor Snowsill, Niamh Terry, Megan Webb, Robyn Wilkins