Wallaroos determined to ‘stick to the process’ after France ‘slip ups’

For 40 minutes in Aix-en-Provence, the Wallaroos had France exactly where they wanted them.

Australia led 19-12 at half-time, had enjoyed a four-player advantage and looked primed to seize control. Instead, France turned the contest on its head, scoring 17 unanswered points to snatch a nail-biting 29-26 victory in the WXV Global Series.

For Wallaroos vice-captain Kaitlan Leaney, the defeat offered a reminder of the margins in Test rugby and a blueprint for what her side must get right against Scotland at the Hive Stadium on Saturday 26 September.

“The reality is we had opportunities that we could have capitalised on and we didn’t,” Leaney said in an honest review of the game.

“We talk a lot about being process-driven and then performance-based and in that moment, we didn’t stick to our processes enough.”

Now, with a three-Test series against Scotland ahead, the Wallaroos have a chance to turn those lessons into action.

“The review [of the France match] was good. We had to really go deep into it and look at the areas that went wrong.

“Obviously in Test match footy, you can’t really afford to have those little slip ups, but the reflection is we’ll learn a lot from that game and hopefully take those learnings going into the Scotland campaign.

“I don’t think we got complacent at any point. We definitely got excited at the fact the space was there and we took those opportunities, but when we reflected on it, we actually played really well in that period when they had 11 players and we had 15.

“It was probably in that counter-attack space where they got those two late tries going into the second half that we were really disappointed, because that kind of came down to desire and work rate, which is something we pride ourselves on,” the 25-year-old lock explained.

France found easy metres through their maul transition, which is an area Leaney and the Wallaroos forwards have identified as a priority with Scotland’s powerful set piece waiting in Edinburgh.

“We know that Scotland love their set piece, so they’ll be utilising that maul a lot and a lot of tries come from that, so that’s something that we’re going to target this week and stop on the weekend.”

The Wallaroos arrive in Scotland having already shown significant improvement across the campaign, despite the results not yet reflecting it.

Having lost 66-19 in their historic 100th women’s rugby Test match against the Black Ferns in August, the vice-captain believes her side are taking a step forward with every outing since.

“When we look at the how we started this campaign with that 100th test against New Zealand, we’ve had about a 20 per cent increase in our performance each time.

“In every metric of the game, we’ve improved. When you look at that from an outside point of view, the losses don’t look good.

“However, I think if you look deeper into it, we’re improving each week, we’re playing better footy, we’re playing with a lot more confidence, we’re moving the ball, we’re defending our line really well and our set piece is going really well.

“They’re things that we can really build confidence on and take into the Scotland games,” she added.

Scotland will offer a different challenge to France, but it’s one Australia knows well.

The sides last met in WXV 2 in a contest that went down to the wire, and Leaney expects more physical, entertaining battles when they meet again throughout the WXV Global Series.

“Scotland are a really well-established team. They’ve played a lot of games this year. They had their Six Nations where they were coming up against high competitors.

“They’re staying up above us at the moment in the world rankings. We know that they have some really good outside backs that they like to utilise. They have a strong set piece that breeds their attack.

“We’ve done a really in-depth preview on them, like they will on us. The beauty is that the last time we played them, it was an entertaining game and a great game to watch as a spectator and be out there as player,” she added.

“We landed at about 2am on Monday morning and hit the ground running with training, but I’m sure that on our day off, there’ll be plans to look at Arthur’s Seat, go to Edinburgh Castle, try some haggis and dive into the culture!

“That’s the beauty of this game is that we do get to travel the world and immerse ourselves in different cultures, so we’re going to enjoy that element as well,” concluded the lock with a smile.

“We’re really looking forward to the three-Test series against Scotland and hopefully we get the results and provide some really entertaining rugby.”