The Wallaroos have been urged to be bold in their sudden-death Rugby World Cup quarterfinal with Canada.

Australia is the underdog in the last-eight clash against world number two Canada in Bristol on Sunday morning AEST.

But coach Jo Yapp, who could be overseeing her final match in charge of the Wallaroos, is determined her squad makes the most of their opportunity at causing a tournament upset.

“From our perspective, the message is, ‘Don’t come off the field thinking about ifs, buts and maybes,'” said Yapp, who will step down from her role at the conclusion of the Wallaroos’s campaign.

“We get one shot at this, so we’ve got to be brave, and we’ve got to go at them both in attack and defence.”

Defeated Wallaroos still battle into World Cup quarters

The Wallaroos end the group stage of the Women’s Rugby World Cup with a loss to England, but the Australians are through to the quarterfinals ahead of the United States.

In their final group match, the Wallaroos threw everything at tournament favourites England in Brighton.

They even led the hosts for more than 30 minutes until they were ground down ruthlessly in the second half and ended up losing 47-7.

But the performance gave the Wallaroos reason to believe they can defeat Canada.

“There’s been a huge confidence boost amongst the group,” said captain Siokapesi Palu, who described the quarterfinal as a “do-or-die game”.

“You can see week in, week out that we continue to get better, but just being able to produce a performance like that against England in that first 30 minutes probably surprised most of us, and probably was good for us.

“Because now we’ve instilled a bit of belief within ourselves that we can do things right as long as we execute it the best we can.”

Palu said the pressure might have switched to the Canadians, who were pushed hard in their last group match by Scotland, before prevailing 40-19.

“The odds are against us this game, and the pressure then gets bounced back on Canada,” she said.

“It’s up to them (Canada) to perform to what people are expecting of them.

“But if that allows us to take that pressure off ourselves and play a little bit more freestyle rugby, which we’re really good at, hopefully that puts belief in us that we can execute what we need.”

The winner of the quarterfinal will face either defending champions New Zealand or South Africa in the semis.

AAP/ABC