‘He’s done incredible things’: Walsh on major sevens coaching update

Tim Walsh has only just returned from a month of leave, but already Rugby Australia’s new Director of Women’s High Performance has helped lock in a key member of the sevens program through to the 2028 LA Olympics.

Rugby Australia confirmed on Tuesday morning that former Australia Sevens Women’s assistant coach Reg Tayler would step into the top job. Tayler moves into the position, while Walsh has taken on a new role in Women’s High Performance.

The former Queensland coach boasts an impressive CV that includes stints both in Australia and abroad. Tayler has previously held positions with the Australia A Women’s Sevens team and even had a stint with Ireland Sevens.

But in 2025, Tayler joined the Australia Sevens Women’s side, while Walsh continued to lead the charge as head coach. Australia took out the HSBC SVNS World Championship last month, with Tayler making a massive contribution towards that success.

“It’s a great way to start my job actually, is to secure Reg in the position,” Walsh said.

“He’s done incredible things and we talk about the succession plan, this is a true succession plan. He’s not going in cold. He completely understands the gam; his experience, his expertise is going to be full utilised by the program.

“A real privilege and a real honour to retain Reg and a real positive for Rugby Australia, for sevens and for women’s rugby… he has a deep knowledge of the players and the game so I think it’s a great way to start my job is to secure Reg.”

Australia took out one of six HBSC SVNS Series events with a dominant victory over arch-rivals New Zealand in Cape Town. But the Black Ferns Sevens remained a force to be reckoned with all season, taking out five of six regular season stops.

The Aussies enjoyed their best performances of the campaign with the circuit’s top prize on the line, taking out silverware in Valladolid and Bordeaux. With that win over New Zealand in the SVNS Bordeaux Cup Final, Australia became world champions.

As the SVNS Series powerhouse continues to build into an Olympic-qualifying season coming up, the DNA of that side will remain. Tayler has been rewarded for a solid couple of years as an assistant, now taking over from Walsh.

“We have four-year, eight-year plans and that’s a whole team effort and there’s a lot of work behind the scenes with numerous different people,” Walsh explained.

“We’re in a very good position… in Paris we were very young and immature and we worked really had on developing maturity and experience in different metrics that we know goes into winning Olympic medals.

“So far we’re on track in those measurements and we can only bolster that now as well with maximising talent within women’s rugby and aligning the sevens and 15s formats.”