‘Two formats, one system’: Walsh hungry to bring winning sevens culture to Wallaroos

Few individuals have spent more time as involved with Australian women’s rugby than Tim Walsh. The 47-year-old got his start with the sevens team in 2013 and has been at the heart of Australian rugby’s biggest success over the past decade.

Now, as Rugby Australia’s new Director of Women’s High Performance, Walsh has an opportunity to transform the footprint of Australian women’s rugby for generations to come.

Australian women’s rugby is set for a colossal six years. The Aussie Women’s Sevens, fresh off their 2026 HSBC SVNS World Championship win, are firmly focused on the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and a home Games in Brisbane in 2032.

Walsh has now been tasked with ramping up the Wallaroos programme in time for a historic home Women’s Rugby World Cup in 2029. While that tournament is only three years away, Walsh has a track record of getting results quickly.

Rugby Australia President Kristy Giteau knows from experience, with Walsh starting out as a coach near the end of her playing career.

“I met Tim in 2014 when he was very early in the coaching ranks as a sevens women’s coach,” Giteau said.

“He jumped at the opportunity to do that. Within two years, we’re on the podium with a gold medal for the sevens [at Rio 2016].”

The success in Rio kickstarted a golden decade, with a 2018 silver and 2022 gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, a 2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens title, and over 20 major tournament wins culminating in three SVNS World Series titles, and two World Championship titles in 2024 and 2026.

As he bows out of the head coach role as a World Championship winner, Walsh is under no illusion of the opportunity ahead of him.

“It was a very attractive proposition,” Walsh said. “The objective is to win more; that’s the goal and the ambition for not only myself, but all the players and the organisation.

“[The focus is] potential and the alignment. 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.”

Despite Rugby Australia overseeing a rapid expansion of the Wallaroos programme and number of matchdays across the 2020s, consistency has been an area of improvement for the side, having bowed out in the quarterfinals of the 2021 and 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cups.

However, signs are pointing towards rapid improvement in the 15s side, their 2023 WXV 1 campaign seeing victory over international heavyweights France, while under former head coach Jo Yapp, the side claimed the 2024 WXV 2 title undefeated in South Africa.

“The more you train, the better you get,” Walsh explained.

“With the science that we have and the coaches that we have, the ability to really maximise talent… when you have a programme where you’re full-time, you can do that at an accelerated rate.

 

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“I think the Wallaroos will, once they get into that training environment, their ability to take on new challenges will increase exponentially. That’s where that alignment piece is going to be really important.”

“If you look at world leading programmes, at the moment there’s a lot of integration between sevens athletes and 15s athletes… World Rugby designed the calendar around players playing both formats,” Phil Waugh, Rugby Australia CEO, said.

“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.”

Walsh will hit the ground running when he commences his role on Wednesday 1 July, his first task being to complete the recruitment processes for both the Wallaroos head coach and his replacement in the Aussie Women’s Sevens head coach.

His attention will then turn to bringing together both the sevens and XVs squads into a full-time environment at the end of the year, setting up both for 2028 and 2029.

Even with the short timeline, Waugh expects Walsh, whose new role will also form part of RA’s executive team, will put the women’s programme in a strong long-term position to flourish, both during and beyond the home Women’s Rugby World Cup and home Olympic Games.

“It’ll be a sprint, that’s why we’ve put Tim in to lead that programme because we feel like we’re in a very strong position in our sevens programme,” Waugh added.

“We’re excited about the acceleration of our XVs programme, but we know that time is running out and we need to ensure that we’re accelerating the growth.”

“Winning,” Walsh smiled when asked what a successful 2029 campaign would look like. “I think it is possible.

“There’s a lot of things that go into winning and a lot of it comes down to that day. But it’s [also] all the work done prior and I think this is a massive step forward to give us the best opportunity.

“The objective is to give both the sevens programmes and the Wallaroos the opportunity to perform at their best.

“You’ve got an Olympic Games, a home Olympic Games and a Rugby World Cup. I think the best talent wants to be looking and playing in those competitions. I think it’s a real positive for women’s sport; it enables recruitment, retention, development of players to have choices.

“When you’ve got a product that we have and the benchmark events that the world is going to be watching, it’s a real positive.”

“When I think of the Women’s World Cup, I think of the fan base,” Giteau added.

“I look at the pathway and how much young girls are wanting to play our sport after the World Cup. The Matildas saw a 16 per cent increase in their grassroots participation [after the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup], and sold out stadiums.

“You can’t be what you can’t see. Visibility is going to be our best friend come 2029, because I envision packed stadiums. With Tim leading those two key [coaching] positions, I can see us doing really well.

“We’re giving that opportunity for athletes to be full-time and to call their job rugby, not as my hobby, but rugby as my job.

“By prioritising them, having an appointed executive that has a voice on the board within the executive team, having a female president appointed in 2024, [it] shows the priorities Rugby Australia has: that women are a priority.”