{"id":204952,"date":"2025-10-11T07:55:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T07:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/204952\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T07:55:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T07:55:08","slug":"rugby-australia-outlines-wallaroos-program-ahead-of-home-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/204952\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby Australia outlines Wallaroos program ahead of home World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rugby Australia<\/a> will continue to invest in a world-class program for the Wallaroos ahead of the 2029 Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup<\/a> on home soil, which includes a fully-resourced program in 2026 and a minimum of 10 Test matches per year.<\/p>\n

After more than doubling its investment into the women\u2019s game during the last World Cup cycle, Rugby Australia outlined on Saturday its commitment to growing the women\u2019s game, less than two weeks after the 2025 Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup final in London.<\/p>\n

Australia played seven Tests in 2025 before flying to England, leading multiple players to speak about the importance of those lead-in matches throughout the World Cup, with the Wallaroos reaching the quarter-finals in Bristol.<\/p>\n

The Wallaroos will play at least 10 Tests per year moving forward, including matches against some of the world\u2019s best in the Pacific Four Series<\/a> and the all-new WXV Global Series, which World Rugby announced during the World Cup.<\/p>\n

RA has confirmed the Wallaroos\u2019 schedule for 2026 includes tours of the USA<\/a> and Europe.<\/p>\n

With former head coach Jo Yapp leaving the Wallaroos, Sam Needs will step into the role as interim head coach. Needs joins Gill Bourke<\/a> as interim assistant coach and Andy Friend as interim technical advisor through to the end of Pac Four.<\/p>\n

Player contracting for 2026 will begin following the conclusion of the 2025 World Cup. These contracts are in addition to the 21 athletes centrally contracted with the Australia Women\u2019s Sevens program.<\/p>\n

\u201cRugby Australia is excited to continue the elite Wallaroos program as we start our journey towards a once-in-a-generation opportunity at the 2029 Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup in Australia,\u201d Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh<\/a> said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Wallaroos have advanced to the quarter-finals of the last two Rugby World Cups and work has commenced to devise a High Performance program best placed to take our national team to the next level when the world\u2019s best teams arrive on our shores in 2029.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhilst we finalise our national women\u2019s rugby delivery model, we are delighted that Sam, Andy and Gill will lead the team forward through the Pacific Four Series in 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe appointment of the Wallaroos interim coaching panel and the opening of player contracting\u00a0will ensure continuity and high standards as we enter a new Rugby World Cup cycle.<\/p>\n

\u201cRA would also like to take the opportunity to acknowledge Jaime Fernandez, who has stepped down as Women\u2019s High Performance Manager after two years in the role. We thank Jaime for his hard work and wish him all the best for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Needs has served as an assistant coach of the Wallaroos since 2024, playing a key role in the team\u2019s preparation and performance at the 2025 World Cup. The new interim head coach succeeds Jo Yapp, who has returned home to the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

Friend joins the coaching staff, having held senior roles at international and provincial levels in both women\u2019s and men\u2019s programs. Bourke rounds out the interim coaching staff, taking charge of the breakdown and defence responsibilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m honoured to lead the Wallaroos for this period and look forward to continuing to build off the back of the Rugby World Cup,\u201d Needs explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe talent we have in the squad is exciting, and the depth we\u2019ve built this year has put us in a great position heading into 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to thank Jilly Collins, Peter Horne<\/a> and Phil Waugh for the opportunity and acknowledge Jo Yapp and Jaime Fernandez for their leadership, guidance and support over the past two years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rugby Australia will continue to invest in a world-class program for the Wallaroos ahead of the 2029 Women\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-204952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}