{"id":896996,"date":"2026-09-18T21:42:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T21:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/896996\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T21:42:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T21:42:21","slug":"wallaroos-edging-towards-their-version-of-the-matildas-effect-ahead-of-2029-womens-rugby-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/896996\/","title":{"rendered":"Wallaroos edging towards their version of the ‘Matildas effect’ ahead of 2029 Women’s Rugby World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this year, when speaking about the Wallaroos contesting the 2029 World Cup on home soil, Rugby Australia (RA) president Kristy Giteau revealed her dream.<\/p>\n

“I envision packed stadiums, girls screaming after a game to get an autograph by one of our Wallaroos players,” she said in June.<\/p>\n

Giteau and her RA colleagues are hoping the Wallaroos will create a similar buzz to that generated by the Matildas at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, which was co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Many have described this as the “Matildas effect”, with the inspiring run to the semifinals triggering a massive spike in female participation numbers and driving record TV audiences.<\/p>\n

RA knows the Wallaroos \u2014 ranked ninth in the world \u2014 must improve on the field to achieve a similar impact, although this relies heavily on the ongoing process of shifting the program to full-time status.<\/p>\n

The players and coaches are doing their part, as illustrated in last weekend’s encouraging performance against world champions England<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite the 48-15 defeat in Salford, the Wallaroos produced an effort suggesting they can be competitive at the World Cup in three years’ time.<\/p>\n

They led 10-5 at half-time, which was uncharted territory for the England squad.<\/p>\n

The Red Roses hadn’t trailed at the half-time break since 2020.<\/p>\n

This wasn’t a fluke, as the Wallaroos played with aggression in both attack and defence, forcing the Red Roses to make uncharacteristic mistakes.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Wallaroos captain Siokapesi Palu Sekona illustrated her side’s physical approach against the Red Roses. (Getty images\/Rugby Australia: Lewis Storey)<\/p>\n

But it wasn’t just the Wallaroos’ physicality in the first half that was impressive.<\/p>\n

The build-up to prop Faliki Pohiva’s 31st-minute try showed they’d identified weaknesses in England’s defensive formation and line-out.<\/p>\n

Test rugby, though, is an 80-minute game and the Red Roses steamrolled the Wallaroos in the second half, scoring seven tries to one.<\/p>\n

This was largely due to the fact they’re on a full-time program and their superior strength and conditioning shone through against the semi-professional Wallaroos.<\/p>\n

Honourable defeats won’t count at the World Cup, but given where the Wallaroos are at this stage of their journey, they deservedly took positives from the result against England.<\/p>\n

“It was a pretty good outcome for us, that first 40 minutes,” Wallaroos scrum half Samantha Wood said.<\/p>\n

“I think the confidence was gaining throughout the half, when we defended our line successfully a few times, and then being able to score one try \u2026 it gave us a lot of confidence.”<\/p>\n

‘Intent and purpose’<\/p>\n

The Wallaroos want to build upon the confidence Wood spoke about as they prepare to face world number four France in Aix-en-Provence on Sunday morning, AEST.<\/p>\n

The coaching staff have drilled into the squad the need to maintain an aggressive approach for more than one half of rugby.<\/p>\n

Wallaroos fade after strong start vs England<\/a><\/p>\n

The Wallaroos give world champions England a scare in Salford, but the Australians cannot take advantage of a half-time lead as the Roses secure a thumping victory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“A lot of the momentum that we did build was off the back of our intent and purpose around contact and collision [on] both sides of the ball,” Wallaroos assistant coach Mike Ruthven said.<\/p>\n

“A lot of our focus [against France] will be making sure we’re really consistent in that contact and collision space.<\/p>\n

“You take a huge amount of confidence out of that [England Test] but it’s our capacity to be able to sustain that and be really consistent over 80 minutes that is ultimately what we’re chasing.”<\/p>\n

Implementing an effective game plan is just one of the Wallaroos’ goals during their three-Test European sojourn as part of the WXV Global Series, which also includes a clash with Scotland in Edinburgh on September 27.<\/p>\n

With an eye on the World Cup, blooding players to build depth is among their priorities.<\/p>\n

Winger Amelia Whitaker started against England in her first Test, while reserve forward Jemma Bemrose was also given a debut.<\/p>\n

\"Piper<\/p>\n

Piper Flynn has the chance to make her Test debut against France. (Getty Images\/Rugby Australia: Lewis Storey)<\/p>\n

Another winger, Piper Flynn, has the chance to earn her a Test cap after she was named on the bench to play France.<\/p>\n

RA director of women’s high performance Tim Walsh, who’s essentially caretaker head coach until Sione Fukofuka assumes the role next year<\/a>, made it clear to 23-year-old Flynn she’s not on tour to make up the numbers.<\/p>\n

“He’s given me a lot of confidence in myself,” Flynn said.<\/p>\n

“As he said to me, and I’m sure to a lot of the other girls, we’ve been picked here for a reason.”<\/p>\n

That reason is to build towards the World Cup.<\/p>\n

As RA dreams of enjoying its version of the Matildas effect in 2029, Flynn doesn’t want to miss out on the action.<\/p>\n

“It’s a really exciting target to work towards,” Flynn said.<\/p>\n

“It gives us all a little bit of fire in our belly to try and build up and grow stronger, and grow our game to push towards winning a home World Cup.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier this year, when speaking about the Wallaroos contesting the 2029 World Cup on home soil, Rugby Australia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":896997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[41691,64,63,1208,13201,44964,104454,760,2633,15131,85,231,19259,102664],"class_list":["post-896996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-41691","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-england","tag-fifa","tag-matildas","tag-red-roses","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-union","tag-rugby-world-cup","tag-sports","tag-test","tag-wallaroos","tag-wxv-global-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896996","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=896996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}