Tia Hinds and Wallaroos ready to ‘leave a mark’ on Black Ferns

When it comes to the merging of Australia’s women’s pathways, no player is closer to the coalface than Tia Hinds, having been a regular of both the Wallaroos and the sevens programme over the last two years.

Now selected to start at scrum-half against the Black Ferns, Hinds is excited to see more of her teammates follow in her footsteps, believing all sides of Australian women’s rugby can thrive under the upcoming alignment.

Debuting against Fiji in May last year, Hinds has notched up 10 caps in gold, appeared at Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025, featured in all bar two weekends of the HSBC SVNS Series in a World Championship winning side, and claimed her first Super Rugby Women’s title with the NSW Waratahs.

“Honestly, not much,” Hinds admitted to RugbyPass when asked if she’s had the chance to stop and process how much she has achieved.

“It has been pretty full on. It’s been really exciting for me, always having so much to explore in rugby. The crossover now between sevens and XVs and that ability for us to go into both, it’s opened a lot more doors for us.”

Hinds cut her teeth in the Australian Sevens side, having appeared in over 100 matches since her 2021 debut, including two Olympic Games and a Commonwealth Games gold medal in Birmingham.

However, since playing in XVs, the 23-year-old has come to embrace the structure of the longer format, her skills brought over from sevens proving beneficial.

“There’s definitely different aspects to the game,” Hinds explained. “In sevens, our skills are a lot more expansive: width of pass, one-on-one tackles, wider space tackles, a lot more space on the field due to numbers.

“I’d say playing XVs, it’s a lot more of a structured game, more of a game like chess: being able to manipulate attack and defence and finding those soft shoulders because it’s not as easy as sevens.

Fixture

Women's Internationals

New Zealand Women

20:05

21 Aug 26

Australia Women

All Stats and Data

“It’s actually one of the reasons why I love XVs, it’s your ability to do so much: you’re looking at your backline, you’re moving your forwards, you’ve also got kick space in behind, there’s just a lot more to think about and it’s a lot more technical and tactical.

“Then to contrast sevens, it’s eyes up footy, you play what’s in front. I love the freedom of sevens, [they’re] very contrasting in those styles of plays, but I really enjoy both of them.

“You definitely [can] never have enough knowledge of the game, so I’m always trying to ask questions and learn as much as I can in the time I have in these camps with the girls.”

Hinds has developed a balance across the two formats, applying her own style and yielding fantastic results, her last performance in sevens seeing her score a try and make four conversions as Australia defeated New Zealand in Valladolid.

Having seen several of her XVs teammates, mostly notably Maya Stewart, flourish in sevens; the success has only reaffirmed Hinds’ belief that alignment between the two programmes should happen sooner rather than later.

With the merging of programmes happening both at player level and for the current squad, a commitment for the Wallaroos to go full time in November, and today’s announcement of a new purpose-built facility at Ballymore, the signs are pointing to a bright future ahead.

“Have a look at the recent World Cup, how many sevens players transitioned over into that,” Hinds added.

“Canada, New Zealand, they were the two most successful teams and they had plenty of crossover.

“It’s really exciting to see that the programme has the ability to now do that, trickling us in now is only going to lead us to become stronger leading into 2029.

“When the seven girls went full-time back in 2014, Walshy [Tim Wash] was there. That was two years out from the Rio Olympics, and they went on to win.

“You’ve got the Wallaroos now going full-time, three years out from a World Cup. Just having that cohesion and mutual crossover, obviously Maya coming into sevens as well and showing what she can provide for us, there’s a lot to come for women’s rugby in Australia.

“The coaching staff have been really aligned in what they want to get across to us in such a small time frame. There’s a bigger picture they’ve got to look at, but just really knuckling down on this week for us, it’s been really good.

“I’ve been really enjoying everything we’ve been learning, and there’s been some changes in the way the Wallaroos used to play to how we now want to play. [With] Sione [Fukofuka] coming in next year, that’s another big plus for us.”

The Wallaroos match day 23 squad to take on the Black Ferns in Auckland was unveiled on Thursday afternoon, the likes of regular backline starters joined by Alysia Lefau-Fakaosilea in the centres, also being significantly beefed up on the bench by the likes of Bienne Terita and Maddison Levi.

The merging of minds has been reflected in the lead up, with Hinds expecting Levi to make an impact in her debut.

“I’ve only been a part of a few test matches, but I definitely feel really good about this one this weekend,” Hinds said.

“The girls are in a really good headspace. Everyone’s on board with the plan to go ahead against the Kiwis this week; we just got to put the performance out there now.

“[Maddison] has touched on it a lot, but it’s [this week] really just leading her into the 2029 World Cup, which is a dream of hers.

“She came across here as a learning block. She’s just a natural athlete, her ability to just be the freak she is out on the edge, I think she’s earned the right to have a go this weekend. Her impact off the bench will be massive if we can play the right game for her.

“She’s just done her job. She’s learned as quickly as she could. I’m really excited for Mads.”

Hinds is under no illusion of the challenge facing them, the Black Ferns remaining undefeated against the Wallaroos from 30 attempts, also boasting home ground advantage and strong form under head coach Whitney Hansen.

However, the close nature of last month’s Super Rugby Champions Final has proven to have lit a fire under the Wallaroos, and Hinds knows how significant it would be for the programme should the women in gold defy history and leave Mount Smart Stadium with a win.

“We play the game of rugby because we love it, but winning tips it over the edge,” Hinds explains.

“Going against the Kiwis, I’d say [is] our biggest competition in both sevens and XVs; it’s always a hard fought battle.

“We’re really trying to leave a mark on them this weekend, whether that’s a win, lose or draw.

“How we come out, it’ll just only trickle on into the test matches ahead leading into the World Cup. You always want to play in these types of matches, playing New Zealand in New Zealand on our 100th test match.

“To be able to get a win there… I mean, it’d be everything.”