What's up with the Wallaroos?

The Black Ferns will be playing the Wallaroos in 15 days time and a lot of rugby news will drop between now and then.

On Monday, the best fifteens players in Aotearoa will be assembled here in Wellington. The Black Ferns and Black Ferns XV scheduled to play a (probably anything but) friendly on Friday 14 August. It's a chance to make good on that Aupiki form and make a case for inclusion on the Northern tour this September.

The XV players meanwhile need to familiarise themselves with this high performance space and it's coaches. Who for the first time, have been signed up beyond the one off match. Blaire Baxter, supported by Kelly Brazier and Carla Hohepa, have the crucial task of developing this next generation of players ahead of a date with destiny. Aka a match versus the British and Irish Lionesses next year.

I'm going to duck out of campaign land where I can to try and pick up some of the stories from inside the camp next week. But before we dive deep into Black Ferns, I thought it worth having a peek over the ditch to figure out what they are up to.

It was in May last year that Jo Yapp announced that she would be staying on in England at the conclusion of the World Cup. Giving Rugby Australia the longest lead time possible to get a new coach in place. Yapp had made great strides with the Wallaroos, doing all she could to improve not just the top team but the feeders to it. Winning them the WXV2 title, the first trophy the team has lifted in my memory.

With Yapp's contract officially up on 31 October 2025, Rugby Australia have still not replaced her with a permanent alternative. As of the time of writing this, there hasn't been a coach announcement since the interim coaching team, led by Sam Needs, wrapped post Pacific Four.

That means there was no Wallaroos head coach watching the Super W to select the squad to play the Black Ferns in 15 days. That should be a scandal. That it currently isn't is a sign of how far the fifteens game in Australia still needs to grow.

The one interesting parallel development to keep an eye on is Sione Fukofuka's departure from the Scotland team. He cited personal reasons as the why behind his early return to Australia and I have no reason to doubt that. But it does mean you have the return of a Wallaroos shaped coach at the same time as there is a Wallaroos coach shaped hole in the side.

Cliicking together of those two pieces may be very fortuitous for Rugby Australia. Fukofuka was well liked as an assistant Wallaroos coach turned interim head before Yapps appointment. He was in charge of the side when they had that cracking win over France in WXV1 back in 2023. Fukofuka has since got World Cup experience as USA's head coach and North Hemisphere experience with Scotland.

So what will come first, the squad or the coach announcement ? And whose hand has doing the picking? Chances are the one big announcement from last month will have the largest influence over the team to be named.

At the end of June, Tim Walsh was announced as the new Director of Women's High Performance. If that name sounds familiar, it should. Walsh was the coach of Australian women's sevens team from 2013-2018, popped over to the men's team for a couple of seasons before returning to the women in 2022 until this year. He is the most successful coach in Australian women's rugby history and now he is tasked with merging the two programmes.

That's right, just like Canada and increasingly New Zealand, Australia is going hybrid with it's athletes. Pooling 15s and 7s talent together into one high performance programme. With this merger, questions still remain to be answered as to whether this will also see the hub model tossed in favour of centralisation.

Bringing all the talent into one location has worked in the shorter format. So with Walsh in charge you could make a safe bet that he will introduce it. But what will it mean for fifteens players currently spread across such a large country? Will players be asked to uproot to chase their rugby dream? What timeline will they be given to make this choice? Will they be put on full time, livable wages to do so? Will they be paid relocation costs for them? For their families? If they don't, will we see talent opt out?

It's no secret that something needs to change for the Wallaroos to play to their full potential. What worries me is the way in which too often it's individuals, rather than systems, that pay the price. I support the merger, I could even support centralisation, I just want to see players supported by a proper change management process. Not judged as uncommitted or ungrateful if their lives take time to reorder.

If they do all come together into one hub, the fifteens players will be placed with long term professionals. This tension will need to be managed as they play for their future. We have seen how quickly that gap has closed between 15s and 7s talent since our Black Ferns have gone full time. This is the gamble Rugby Australia will be making, with the hope that their combined women's programme will inspire the same.

Both formats have a big couple of years coming. Australian 7s need to make amends for their flop performance at the last Olympic Games. The Wallaroos need to be in the best form possible when they host the next women's World Cup in 2029. It's a big moment and it needs big play. This structural shift could be just what they need.

I discussed this Les Elder and Chelsea Semple on the podcast this week. Despite all the potential upheaval, Semple, who has firsthand experience of displacement due to incoming sevens talent, put it this way.

"As much as personally sometimes it's tough for some players, at the end of the day you want the absolute best players playing in these test matches. Particularly in this Australian team who have never beaten the Black Ferns."

Here in Aotearoa, we love the sevens rivalry between us and the Aussies. If the merger of these programmes brings that same competitiveness to our O'Reilly Series, then bring it on.

With you,
Alice