A MID Wales politician has claimed Wales would be more likely to win the Rugby World Cup with a Plaid Cymru government.

Helen Mary-Jones, the Plaid Cymru AM for Mid and West Wales, made the claim just hours after Wales finished fourth in the tournament which concludes with 2003 winners England taking on two time champions South Africa in Saturday morning’s final.

Wales, defeated by the Springboks in last week’s semi-final, were defeated 40-17 by New Zealand in this morning’s third/fourth place game in Tokyo.

But Ms Jones claimed replacing the current Labour government in Cardiff Bay with Plaid could be the key to Wales, who have suffered three semi-final defeats in the tournament’s 32 year history, winning the biggest prize in rugby.

A party press release, issued under Ms Jones’ name, was headlined "Welsh rugby team would be more likely to win World Cup under Plaid government".

It then stated: "Plaid Cymru’s Grassroots’ Sports Spokesperson, Helen Mary-Jones, has today said that the Welsh Rugby team would be more likely to win the World Cup under a Plaid Cymru Government due to a significant programme of investment in grassroots sport."

The party has faced confusion and even ridicule from some political opponents for the claim but it says it is based on a commitment to investing in grass roots sport. It said spending on sport facilities and programmes has been cut when compared to 2009/10 figures.

Ms Jones said: "The route to success is investing in our young people, developing the sports men and women that will lead Wales on the sporting world stage in the future. That is before we even mention the huge health benefits this programme would have.

"With such a radical programme of investment, we can give Wales the best possible chance of winning the next World Cup."

How has the Welsh rugby team fared at the World Cup under different governments?

Ms Jones claims a government led by Plaid leader Adam Price could lead to a golden age in Welsh rugby. But the national team’s worst World Cup performance, since the introduction of devolution, came in 2007 when Plaid were junior coalition partners to Labour.

In that year’s World Cup, played just months after Plaid entered government for the first time, Wales failed to advance past the group stage and were knocked out by Fiji in one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history.

After Labour ended its partnership with Plaid, following a successful 2011 Welsh Assembly election campaign which saw the party again govern alone, Wales, now coached by Warren Gatland, reached the World Cup semi-finals that autumn and lost to Australia in the third place play-off.

In 2015 Wales reached the quarter finals, with Labour still in government, the same stage the country reached when hosting the tournament in 1999, shortly after Labour became the first administration after devolution was established that year and before it entered its partnership with the Liberal Democrats.

That partnership ended with the 2003 Welsh election after which Labour again ruled alone when the World Cup kicked off that autumn with Wales losing at the quarter final stage to eventual champions England.

The 1987, 1991 and 1995 World Cups were all played when Wales was under direct rule from Westminster with the Conservatives in power throughout. Wales failed to advance from the group stages in 1995 and 1991, when John Major was Prime Minister, with the country’s best ever World Cup finish, a third place triumph over Australia in 1987, achieved when Margaret Thatcher was the PM.