'It is going to ramp up': Stewart expects big changes in full-time Wallaroos set-up

Wallaroos wing Maya Stewart expects there to be plenty of changes in the programme when it is established as a full-time set-up.

Earlier this week Olympic gold medal winning coach Tim Walsh was appointed by Rugby Australia as their Director of Women’s High Performance. Earlier this season the 26-year-old, who is the all-time leading try-scorer for the Wallaroos, spent time with Walsh’s sevens side.

Among the 47-year-old’s responsibilities include launching the Wallaroos as a full-time programme which will be based in Sydney as the side look for improved results in the lead up to their home Women’s Rugby World Cup in 2029.

Australia’s senior women’s team will also be combined with the sevens programme. Earlier in June, Walsh coached Australia Women’s Sevens to a HSBC SVNS World Championship title in Bordeaux.

Walsh has previous experience establishing a full-time programme. In 2014 he established Australia Women’s Sevens as a professional team and, just two years later, watched his team top the podium at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Now Rugby Australia want similar success for their XVs team, who exited Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 at the pool stages and lost all three of their Pacific Four Series fixtures earlier this year. In their quest to do just that, Stewart expects there to be some rotation in the playing squad.

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

“I put my hand up [to join the Australian sevens program] because I wanted to come and be around a bunch of winners and a program that I see is really successful, so there is that attraction piece, but you’re absolutely right, it is going to ramp up [expectations].”

Stewart went on to liken Walsh to Wayne Smith, who masterminded the Black Ferns’ 2021 Rugby World Cup win [competed in 2022].

Smith took charge of New Zealand after the team experienced a series of poor results at the start of 2022 and won all 12 of his matches at the helm on the way to a 34-31 win against the Red Roses at Auckland’s Eden Park.

Upon Walsh’s appointment, Rugby Australia were keen to underline their commitment to the development of women’s rugby over the next six years.

The spotlight will be on Australia with a 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles just two years away, as well a home Women’s Rugby World Cup in 2029 and the 2032 Olympic Games in Brisbane.

“We’re sort of sitting in a position now where if we didn’t move forward, we almost become stagnant, so with a home World Cup in three years and rolling into 2028 [Olympic Games in Los Angeles], I think it’s a massive step forward for the organisation and probably something that, not needed to happen sooner, but we were sort of running out of time, so super important and I guess really exciting for us,” Stewart said.

“There’s definitely time. I think Wayne Smith is a perfect example for the Black Ferns over in New Zealand. A year out prior to their home World Cup I think they got smacked up 50 to 0 [56-15 by the Red Roses] and were able to turn it around and actually beat England.

“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.”