Piper Simons: 'A year ago XVs wouldn't even be in the picture for me'

If you were to tell Piper Simons 12 months ago she’d be spending nearly all of 2026 diving into the world of XVs, it would have surprised the sevens star.

However, as the Wallaroos prepare for their final fortnight of action in 2026, when they take on Scotland in the second of their three match series, the 21-year-old is hungry to make her mark on both codes and was named to earn her third cap off the bench at Accor Stadium in Sydney.

Coming straight into the Australian Women’s Sevens in 2024 after being part of the Australia’s U18s Girls Sevens side that won the Global Youth Sevens title and the Youth Commonwealth Games gold medal in 2023, the last two years saw Simons excel in the short format.

But when the chance to play XVs came calling, Simons quickly caught the bug, fresh off seeing the successful crossover of Charlotte Caslick and Tia Hinds in 2025.

“If you asked me a year ago, XVs wouldn’t even be in the picture for me,” Simons told RugbyPass. “I’d never stepped into a game of XVs.

“But I think now, [I’m] just trying to become the best rugby player I can be across both codes, make myself available for selection, [and] looking into the future, being able to be someone who can jump across.”

Simons made her XVs debut against Fijiana at the start of the year and has now had the chance to experience everything XVs has to offer, getting the chance to travel on the WXV Global Series tour of Europe, and learning off the likes of Hinds and Samantha Wood.

“It was firstly really cool just being over in Europe, it’s such a stunning place and so grateful to tour the world as my job,” Simons added.

“Even if you aren’t in that playing 23, you’re still there, you’re still training, having an impact and putting your best foot forward, whereas sevens might be a bit different because only the playing 12 or 13 travel.

“I’m still very new to XVs, so I’m just grateful to be learning and around the group. I’ve just been like a massive sponge to especially Sammy [Wood]. I had no experience with XVs, so I was really starting from nothing.

“I owe a lot to Sammy to where I am today and where I want to be in the future. I’m grateful to have her, pick her brain. She’s a pretty damn good half.”

With Simons getting the chance to travel parts of the world she’s never been to before with the Wallaroos, she also got the chance to see the growth of the side under the new Director of Women’s High Performance, her old sevens coach Tim Walsh.

With the side showing promise against England and France, their second half against Scotland proved a significant one – which the team will look to build on this weekend.

“One of the main messages [from that game] is can we put on a performance for the full 80 minutes,” Simons explained.

“We’ve seen in other games we’ve started really well, but then haven’t quite performed in that second half. In the Scotland game, it was the opposite way.

“[We’re] trying to stick to a performance for the full 80 minutes and tidying up our execution of all the little things, the things that we can control, because we know that we’re good enough to beat them.”

Being part of that environment is something Simons is now leaning into even harder, after she was included in the inaugural Australia U21s squad that will play New Zealand U21s at the end of the month.

With nearly 100 players taking part in the U16s and U19s inaugural camps in September and October, Simons is hungry to reunite with several players she played with previously in sevens and XVs camps.

“I’m so keen for that little campaign,” Simons added. “It’s such a good initiative that Rugby Australia started with New Zealand.

“It’s going to be so cool, having heaps of the Wallaroos girls in that just makes it even better. I did watch the U19s [Next Gen XVs series], the standard was amazing.

“[It’s] good to see that there’s so many girls that are interested and wanting to pursue a career in rugby, and make higher levels. I think we’ll have a pretty good team. We’ve started getting like chats ready and groups sorted, [the] Zooms and stuff. We’re onto it.

“I’m excited [to play] with the other young girls in the Wallaroos program, building combinations with them. I know a couple of the girls through sevens pathways, like Maddie Pomeranke, Anaia Cruikshank, Lusiana [Vesikula], she played a bit of Tahs.

“There’s some good names in there that are definitely the next generation.”

Simons’ passion to grow herself as a player is hard to miss, with the 21-year-old buying into the future of the Australian women’s programme under Walsh.

The next few months are set to be extremely busy for the former sevens head coach, as he prepares to complete the Wallaroos’ transition to a full-time programme by the end of the year, and get ready to hand the reins over to new head coach Sione Fukofuka in 2027.

Having had time in both codes, the scrum-half has bought into the future, being excited about where she can grow as a player in Australia’s rapidly developing system.

With all four squads playing at Accor Stadium in one day on Saturday, Simons is excited for the journey ahead to both the 2028 LA Olympics and Women’s Rugby World Cup 2029.

“I don’t know if it’s ever been done before,” Simons said of the quadruple header.

“This is a unity piece to show that Rugby Australia, we’re all one. We’re all working towards being better, being one.

“Especially in the women’s space, the collaboration between the Wallaroos and the sevens, the fact that we’re playing after each other, we’re going to be there supporting each other, seeing each other.

“I’m so excited to watch all my mates in the sevens team. [I’ll] probably have a bit of FOMO [fear of missing out], but I’m so excited to watch them play as well, especially against New Zealand.

“The fact that both codes are going to be fulltime at Rugby Australia, that’s so exciting for women’s rugby. There’s so many pathways that I could take.

“I’m honestly pretty open to anything to get some game time and just play footy. I’m just open to it all, honestly.”