Jo Yapp has been named the head coach for the first women\u2019s British & Irish Lions tour of New Zealand in 2027. The former England captain is the head of the women\u2019s pathway at the Rugby Football Union and led Australia to the last eight of last year\u2019s Rugby World Cup.<\/p>\n
Yapp has been preferred to the England head coach, John Mitchell, for the coveted Lions job. The New Zealander led England to World Cup glory in 2025 and had said publicly he would like the job.<\/p>\n
Yapp said: \u201cTo lead the first-ever British & Irish Lions women\u2019s team is an incredible honour and something I\u2019m immensely proud of. The Lions represents the very best of our sport and this tour to New Zealand is an opportunity to create something truly special and help shape the future of women\u2019s rugby for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 46-year-old will work part-time for the Lions from July before taking a sabbatical from her RFU role next year to go full-time. The rest of the coaching staff, selected from the four home nations, has yet to be confirmed.<\/p>\n
The Lions will tour in September next year with the schedule including three Tests against the Black Ferns. New Zealand will be led by Whitney Hansen, who took over in December 2025.<\/p>\n
Carol Isherwood, the chair of the Lions women\u2019s committee, said: \u201cThis is a hugely significant appointment for women\u2019s rugby and an exciting new chapter in Lions history.<\/p>\n
\u201cJo brings outstanding experience, leadership and understanding of the women\u2019s game and I have no doubt she will play an important role in bringing together and leading the very best players from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.\u201d<\/p>\n
After retiring in 2009, Yapp coached England Under-20s before becoming skills coach at Worcester. She was promoted to head coach and led the club side until it folded in 2023.<\/p>\n
Yapp\u2019s next role saw her named the head coach of Australia, becoming the first woman to lead the Wallaroos. She lead them to the WXV2 trophy in 2024 which secured the team\u2019s place at the 2025 World Cup, where Yapp was just one of three female head coaches.<\/p>\n
As a player, Jo Yapp faced the Black Ferns in two Women\u2019s World Cup finals \u2013 and lost both. Photograph: David Rogers\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
The Wallaroos reached the quarter-finals of the groundbreaking tournament but were knocked out by eventual the runners-up Canada. Additionally, she has twice coached the Barbarbians.<\/p>\n
As a player she was capped for the Red Roses 70 times and represented her country at three World Cups. In two of those tournaments, in 2002 and 2006, England lost to New Zealand in the final.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know from experience how challenging it is to face the Black Ferns on home soil,\u201d Yapp said, \u201cbut that challenge is exactly what makes this tour so exciting. There is an enormous amount of talent across the four unions and I\u2019m looking forward to bringing together the very best players to represent the Lions in 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lions chief executive, Ben Calveley, added: \u201cJo\u2019s breadth of experience across the UK club game and the international women\u2019s game in the southern hemisphere made her an outstanding candidate for this role. Her vision for bringing together players from the four unions was hugely compelling, and we are thrilled to welcome her on board.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe selection process was rigorous, competitive and international in scope as befitting the significance of this historic appointment. For a moment that represents such a step forward for the game, it was important to us that this appointment serves our desire to grow and support all aspects of the women\u2019s game including the promotion of female coaches. We are delighted to appoint Jo who we believe will excite players and fans alike as we continue to build towards New Zealand in 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jo Yapp has been named the head coach for the first women\u2019s British & Irish Lions tour of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":697990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-697989","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\/697989","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=697989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/697990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}