{"id":931617,"date":"2026-10-17T16:10:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T16:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/931617\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T16:10:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T16:10:13","slug":"wallaroos-say-theres-room-to-improve-after-defeating-scotland-56-12-in-sydney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/931617\/","title":{"rendered":"Wallaroos say there’s room to improve after defeating Scotland 56-12 in Sydney"},"content":{"rendered":"

Among Siokapesi Palu Sekona’s many impressive qualities as Wallaroos captain is her uncompromising approach.<\/p>\n

Wallabies outclassed by All Blacks<\/a><\/p>\n

The Wallabies fall to the All Blacks for the 13th straight time, as their trans-Tasman rivals record a convincing 43-21 win in Sydney.<\/p>\n

As such, it does not come as a shock to learn she feels the Wallaroos still have much room for improvement following their dominant 56-12 win over Scotland in this afternoon’s Global XV Series Test.<\/p>\n

The eight-tries-to-two victory did not represent a complete performance in Palu Sekona’s eyes, which should serve as music to the ears of Wallaroos supporters.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

It shows the Wallaroos are setting the highest possible standards for themselves.<\/p>\n

“We still know there is room for improvement and we definitely know what to do to clean that up,” Palu Sekona said.<\/p>\n

\"Siokapesi<\/p>\n

Wallaroos skipper Siokapesi Palu Sekona put in a solid shift on both sides of the ball. (Getty Images: Cameron Spencer)<\/p>\n

The Wallaroos defeated Scotland 30-10 three weeks ago in Edinburgh<\/a> during their three-Test swing through Great Britain and France as part of the Global XV Series.<\/p>\n

The victory snapped a six-match losing streak but left Wallaroos players and coaches dissatisfied.<\/p>\n

It was a sign of the Wallaroos’ quickly developing harder edge, which Palu Sekona wants carried through to the 2029 Women’s Rugby World Cup.<\/p>\n

“We knew we could put together a better performance,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Ultimately results and scores are what people look at. But if we want to break down our rugby, there are so many things to clean up.<\/p>\n

“From discipline, to our ruck, to the accuracy of our set-piece. There are things we can continue to work on.”<\/p>\n

Wallaroos set bar high<\/p>\n

The Wallaroos, ranked seventh in the world, are starting from behind scratch when compared to teams such as England and New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Both enjoy the benefit of being full-time programs, with their respective governing bodies making a wise move to invest in the women’s game.<\/p>\n

The Wallaroos are still semi-professional, but a shift to full-time status \u2014 as part of an integrated program alongside the women’s sevens squad \u2014 is in progress.<\/p>\n

There is no doubt the Wallaroos’ rate of improvement will be accelerated once they go full-time in the lead-up to the World Cup, which Australia will host.<\/p>\n

“We don’t want to only be the better versions of ourselves,” Palu Sekona said.<\/p>\n

“We want to be the best in the world.”\"Amelia<\/p>\n

Winger Amelia Whitaker scored a double in the Wallaroos’ victory. (Getty Images\/Corbis: Steve Christo)<\/p>\n

The Wallaroos’ makeshift coaching team, under the leadership of Rugby Australia’s director of women’s high performance Tim Walsh, has had a positive influence on the playing group.<\/p>\n

Sione Fukofuka will take over as head coach next year and work alongside Walsh<\/a>, who enjoyed tremendous success in charge of the Australian women’s sevens squad.<\/p>\n

Like Palu Sekona, Walsh was not completely satisfied with the Wallaroos’ display against Scotland.<\/p>\n

But he saw enough to know they are heading in the right direction.<\/p>\n

“I think it was another step forward, for sure,” Walsh said.<\/p>\n

The Wallaroos will complete their 2026 Test season when they meet Scotland in Canberra on Friday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Among Siokapesi Palu Sekona’s many impressive qualities as Wallaroos captain is her uncompromising approach. Wallabies outclassed by All…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":931618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[41691,10751,64,63,99527,760,2633,5994,498349,85,670,360966,7893,2500,19259,21418],"class_list":["post-931617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-41691","tag-all-blacks","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bledisloe-cup","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-union","tag-scotland","tag-sipkapesi-palu-sekona","tag-sports","tag-sydney","tag-tim-walsh","tag-union","tag-wallabies","tag-wallaroos","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931617","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=931617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/931618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=931617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=931617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=931617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}