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When Caitlyn Halse was a child – which, for Australia’s teenage full-back phenom, was not that long ago – her father had a certain motivational trick to get her to practice her passing. Perhaps recognising the burgeoning talent that has established the now-18-year-old as one of rugby’s brightest young stars, a set of rugby posts had already been erected in the Halse backyard to hone her kicking but the refinement of a second skill required a more rudimentary solution.
“When I was young, my dad used to make me go outside and he’d draw a person out of chalk on the wall,” Halse recalls, bouncing with her trademark energy in a week in which the Wallaroos take on England’s dominant Red Roses. “I used to throw hundreds of balls on each side at it. I was trying to get better at my skills every day.”
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Caitlyn Halse has been a star of the first two weeks of the World Cup (AFP/Getty)
It was hard work that paid off. Virtually throughout her young life, Halse has been marked out as something of a sporting prodigy. At age six, she was donning Picton Magpies rugby league shirt; at age eight, a Camden Rams union uniform, her pigtails hidden beneath a scrum cap to avoid criticism from young boys. By the age of 16 years and 187 days, she was breaking James O’Connor’s record as the youngest ever player to feature in a Super Rugby match when she made her debut in the Waratahs’ season opener. Within a year and a half, she became the youngest ever Australian international.
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Caitlyn Halse made her Super Rugby debut at the age of 16 (Getty)
No wonder, then, that Halse is nicknamed “The Kid” in Wallaroos camp. Such is the youthful talent being brought through by head coach Jo Yapp that the teenage full-back is now only the most junior member of the squad in England, but Halse is already a key figure within the squad and, after injury to sevens star Charlotte Caslick before the World Cup, a certain starter at full-back. Much of Australia’s game is shaped around what the youngster can do both with ball in hand and with a boot that belies her age and relative inexperience.
“Every time I go into a training session where I get to refine them, I stick with it and don’t just mess around,” she says, before chuckling: “Teammates are definitely better than a chalk drawing on the wall. They get to talk to me and give me feedback.
“I think one of my strengths would definitely be my kicking. I think I’ve got a pretty good long kicking game. Also my vision – I am good at counting numbers, reading defence and attack. But I think I’ve got a lot to work on, speed being one of them. My kicking can still get better. It’s good, but there are always things I can improve on, whether it’s my follow through, or the technique in which I kick the ball.
“I definitely think the full-back position is ever evolving. There are a lot more full-backs that have the run/kick/pass game, whereas a couple of years ago they might have only had the run/ pass, and not the kicking. It’s only going to get better and better with the more rugby and high intensity games we get to play.”
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Caitlyn Halse scored twice against Samoa and the USA (Getty)
Halse has been heavily backed by Yapp both in public and private. The former England scrum half, who will leave her role as Australia head coach to return home after this tournament, is a keen nurturer of talent who played a vital role in the development of plenty of Red Roses during her time with the national under-20s side. The belief she is instilling in Halse is clear from the full-back’s performances on the pitch, two tries arriving against Samoa and the USA in each of her first two World Cup outings.
“Almost before every game, she tells me that no matter what I do, they are going to back my performance,” Halse explains of Yapp’s influence. “Their main message is around mistakes. Sometimes mistakes are going to happen, I think it is just the reaction to what happens and trying to get back into the game.”
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Caitlyn Halse counts her kicking game as one of her strengths (Getty)
But her confidence also comes from a willingness to back herself. Growing up, Halse idolised All Blacks great Christian Cullen – “the way he manipulated the line, his speed, I loved him” – even though the full-back retired just a year after she was born, as well as Dan Carter – “the epitome of a world-class 10”, according to Halse. She continues to bring things from others into camp. Australia co-captain Emily Chancellor tells a story of Halse spotting a banana-style kick in a Super Rugby game and immediately working hard to add it to her own skillset – results, according to the young full-back, have been mixed but are a sign of an ambitious talent.
The challenge of facing the all-conquering Red Roses does not necessarily daunt her. “I’ve grown up wanting to play on the international stage. It’s meant to be an almost sold-out crowd of 30,000 people [in Brighton on Saturday], and I don’t think I’ve ever played in front of so many people before. I’ll try to feed off the crowd’s energy and get myself pumped up.
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Caitlyn Halse could be key as Australia plot a World Cup upset against England (Getty)
“I try not to think about the pressure of the game too much. A couple of the girls in the group keep me humble. I try not to focus too much on the pressure and just go out and do what I do best.”