Australia want to 'maximise the talent we have' with merging of Wallaroos and Sevens programmes

A growing group of Wallaroos and Aussie Sevens stars are hoping the merging of Australia’s women’s rugby programmes will happen sooner rather than later, following a successful cross-pollination of NextGen Sevens and Super Rugby Women’s in 2026.

The semi finals of the Super Rugby Women’s season kick off this weekend, with news also being confirmed that the Rugby Union Players Association [RUPA] has amended its Constitution to recognise Women’s XV players as full Members of the Association.

This amendment, which includes Wallaroos and Super Rugby Women’s players, marks a significant step forward towards full professionalism across the entire program, and that shifts behind the scenes are commencing.

“This is a natural and necessary step for our Association,” RUPA CEO Adrian Turner said in a statement.

“Rugby’s greatest growth opportunity is the women’s game, and that is especially true in Australia with a [Women’s Rugby] World Cup on the horizon in 2029.

“The players at the centre of that growth deserve to be properly represented and to share in what they help build. It was pleasing to see such uniform endorsement amongst members at the AGM.”

The shift towards a professional high performance environment, with sevens and XVs coming under one system, has been signposted by Rugby Australia’s new Director of Women’s High Performance, Tim Walsh.

“[The focus is] potential and the alignment,” Walsh said in mid-June.

“Our biggest thing is to have alignment and maximise the talent that we have. We’ve got two formats, we’re going to have one system and shared success.”

“If you look at world leading programmes, at the moment there’s a lot of integration between sevens athletes and XVs athletes… World Rugby designed the calendar around players playing both formats,” Phil Waugh, Rugby Australia CEO, added.

“We haven’t necessarily utilised our athletes across both programmes as well as others have, I think there’s a real opportunity there to bring the programmes together and get success by putting our best athletes in a campaign for whichever campaigns are prioritised at the time.”

Across the Super Rugby Women’s campaign in 2026, all Australian sides have made effective use of both HSBC World Series talent and domestic talent from the NextGen Sevens tournament, with reception to increased collaboration being universally positive.

This has also proven a two-way street, with Alysia Lefau-Fakaosilea singling out the learning environment XVs brings, while the likes of Desiree Miller and Maya Stewart – the latter making a successful HSBC SVNS Series appearance in Singapore – praising the standards brought by the sevens stars from the high performance environment.

“From sevens to XVs is quicker, more space on the field,” Lefau-Fakaosilea said upon her return to the Reds squad.

“I’m also learning as well… there’s a few girls making the transition into XVs, the feedback we’ve got back is that they love the environment and bringing the stuff they learned from XVs, and to sevens.

“We’re learning from each other and you can see how it affects both XVs and sevens.”

Several of the Wallaroos are keen to follow in Stewart’s footsteps and try the shorter format of the game – not just for the opportunity, but the skillsets it could bring.

“[I’m] super excited to see the programs merge,” Caitlyn Halse said ahead of the Waratahs’ clash with the Force this weekend.

“The Aussie Sevens programme, they’re already a high performance environment and I think that’s something that the Wallaroos are trying to achieve.

“If there was ever an opportunity for me to go train with sevens or play there, I would definitely take it with two hands.

“There’s so much that the sevens space could teach me – but not necessarily what XVs can’t – but just stuff they focus on more because it’s part of their game. I’d probably jump at an opportunity to train with the sevens.”

 

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“I still feel like I’m learning the game,” Waratah teammate Miller echoed. “The more footy, the better. Sevens is definitely a skill set where me, as a winger, would benefit from.”

“The Wallaroos are a great programme and I think what’s ahead looks really important,” Western Force Grace Freeman added, who is set to play for Leicester Tigers in the JAECOO Premiership Women’s Rugby through the new collaboration program Rugby Australia.

“It’s crucial for keeping girls in rugby union and allowing the girls that are in rugby union to be full-time athletes. We still have people juggling families and jobs and we know that’s a big sacrifice for them.

“A full-time programme will only help a lot of us become even better athletes, better players.”

Waugh and Walsh are expecting to pull from the best of both programmes for each respective campaign, with the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles , the 2032 Brisbane Olympics and the 2029 women’s Rugby World Cup key areas of focus.

While this will generate competition, Stewart, the most recent example who has played in both, is confident the establishment of the two programmes will give the Wallaroos time to be competitive come 2029.

“I think it’ll obviously be a big test for some of the girls,” Stewart said in June.

“We’ll see people thrive and we’ll probably see other people probably not, I guess, be around. I guess that’s just the nature of the beast.

“You kind of trim the fat and people succeed and people don’t. That’s what Tim’s looking to do. It’ll get right down to the pointy end of things.

“There’s definitely time. I think Wayne Smith is a perfect example for the Black Ferns over in New Zealand [ahead of 2021].

“I don’t think time is the issue. I think having the group come together and be able to dedicate themselves, we’ll just see the rewards of that straight away.

“Tim’s the perfect person. I think going into 2016, they had only become full-time two or three years prior to that, so it’s almost a really similar timeline. There’s no better person for this job.”