their record 124-6 win against Wales<\/a> on the weekend.<\/p>\nTheir success is off the back of a strong NRLW competition and Jillaroos high performance program, which has prompted numerous calls for countries to invest more in their women\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
Yet for Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Samoa who are smaller developing nations, investment is a loose term with limited meaning or possibility.<\/p>\n
One concept to consider could be a Pacific Islands scholarship program in the NRLW.<\/p>\n
An NRLW scholarship program, however, could be the start of a bigger conversation on what investment could actually look like. <\/p>\n
In order to raise the level of the women\u2019s game in countries outside of Australia, the new development-like program would see every club in the NRLW have two players that they sponsor from Pacific countries, added to their squad. <\/p>\n
![\"SYDNEY,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/92aa2580f458753e7ba5c20383fcd667.jpeg\")
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – NOVEMBER 01: Keeley Nizza of Australia celebrates with team mates after scoring a try during the 2026 Women’s Rugby League World Cup match between Australia Jillaroos and Wales at CommBank Stadium on November 01, 2026 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Cameron Spencer\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
They would train with the team, play in the NSW and BMD Premierships as well as be available to be called up to the main squad if needed. <\/p>\n
It would provide the professional knowledge and experience which they could take back to their teams back home. It would also expose the player to NRLW coaches to potentially attain an NRLW contract. It would help build and strengthen the international game.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a concept that has the backing of former PNG Orchids coach and Hall of Famer Tahnee Norris.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey need to know the level they need to be at, so a scholarship system could work, it would expose them to what level they need to be at,\u201d Norris told foxsports.com.au.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone like Naomi Kelly from PNG would be a perfect example of that, bring her over, expose her to the level she needs to be at, give her some education around edge defence and the simple things and that girl could be an NRLW player. She has the attributes there but has never been coached at that same level. When you go in as a national team coach for teams like that you don\u2019t get (enough) time with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Skinner dissects Jillaroos thumping win | 08:47<\/p>\n
Norris was the Orchids coach for two years up and created a female pathways plan for the country. The plan included a proposal to the QRL for the inclusion of a PNG women\u2019s team in the BMD Premiership, mirroring the PNG Hunters men\u2019s team in the Queensland Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a no brainer. Girls in PNG currently playing in the competition over there need to know what level they need to be at,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy intent was to increase the exposure, have emerging teams, increase the coaches involved in the system as well. My proposal included exposing girls to the BMD Premiership and, in the future, to have a team in the Under 19s and in the BMD Premiership like the Hunters, to expose them to the level they need to be at.\u201d<\/p>\n
The skills gap across nations in the women\u2019s game is something the men\u2019s international game also found itself in, not all that long ago.<\/p>\n
In the 2013 World Cup, Australia beat Fiji 64-nil in the semi-finals and that was after Fiji beat Samoa 22-4 in the knockout stage. Tonga was also beaten by Scotland in the group stage.<\/p>\n
In 2017, the Kangaroos thrashed Samoa 46-nil in the knockout stage.<\/p>\n
Sergis scores from huge 70m run | 00:53<\/p>\n
The powerhouse performances many of the teams are showing this World Cup is similarly because of a strong NRL and many players switching their allegiance from Australia to the country of the heritage. That\u2019s easier to do when you\u2019re mega NRL deals, but for less lucrative NRLW contracts, it\u2019s understandable players don\u2019t want to give up the bigger match payments from Australia.<\/p>\n
As the NRLW grows, this may change.<\/p>\n
However for European countries who don\u2019t have the same financial constraints of many of their Pacific nations opposition, there\u2019s no excuse.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey should be ahead, they obviously haven\u2019t done it (invested). They didn\u2019t jump on it like the NRL did. Something needs to happen for France, England and Wales to be competitive, they\u2019re now having to play catch up,\u201d Norris said.<\/p>\n
Like Australia and New Zealand, England has played in every edition of the tournament, although the first two Cups they competed as Great Britain. France first competed in 2008.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd this is the thing, if it was done (investment) at the right time, then they would all be at the same level. If it was done when everyone was starting to say, yep let\u2019s do something about this, not just Australia, then we would all be at the same level,\u201d Norris added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Jillaroos continue to steamroll their way through the World Cup and calls for \u2018investment\u2019 in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":951602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-951601","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\/951601","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=951601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/951602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=951601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=951601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=951601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}