Wallaroos embrace ultimate test against ‘gold standard’ of women’s 15s

Record-setting Wallaroos winger Desiree Miller believes the Aussies can go into their WXV Global Series opener against England with a nothing-to-lose mentality, as they look to take down the “gold standard” side in women’s 15s rugby.

England were beaten in the 2022 Women’s Rugby World Cup Final against New Zealand at Eden Park, but have gone unbeaten since then. The Red Roses stormed home to win the World Cup on home soil last year, and backed that up with more Six Nations success.

Meanwhile, the Wallaroos are looking to bounce back from a fairly one-sided defeat to the Black Ferns in Auckland last month. But after making the long-haul trip to the UK, with some big-name returnees in the squad, the Wallaroos are chasing what would be a huge result.

The Wallaroos kicked off their 2025 World Cup campaign at Manchester’s CorpAcq Stadium and will soon take the field at the venue yet again. Incredibly, the Red Roses have never played at the venue, instead taking relatively recent home games to either London or Bristol.

England overcame the Aussies during their run to the World Cup title, but it wasn’t easy with the women in gold leading after about 30 minutes at Bright & Hove Albion FC Stadium. But the Red Roses fought their way back, much to the delight of the vocal English crowd.

“We’ve reflected on the game a little bit already and those first 30 minutes were definitely positive. I think it just gives us a bit of confidence that it is achievable,” Miller told reporters.

“They’re the powerhouse and the gold standard in women’s 15s at the moment, haven’t lost since the [2022] World Cup. While that’s a great achievement, it’s also a lot of pressure on them.

“We have nothing to lose and with the prep that we’ve done, with the review that we’ve done, there’s a lot of tools that we can use to pick apart their game. I think it’s just a matter of, it’s a cliché but doing it together and doing it for 80 minutes.

“I’m really confident in what we’ve prepared and I think f we just can do it together, it will yield a really positive result.”

Australia have already played five international matches this season, but the campaign has been split into blocks either side of Super Rugby Women’s. The Pacific Four Series took place across consecutive weeks earlier this year, before Wallaroos players split off to their respective club sides.

The NSW Waratahs secured another three-peat before losing the Championship Final to Super Rugby Aupiki champions the Blues. It was a thriller at Sydney’s Leichhardt Oval, with the visitors claiming a 24-17 victory on the road.

Three weeks later, many of those Waratahs and Blues players were suiting up for their national teams, with the Black Ferns powering to a big win. But as Miller reflected, it’s a result that as ignited the fire before the Wallaroos return to the Test arena.

“It’s definitely a new environment, a new calendar… it was a change and a lot of expectation to just step up and perform without Super prepping us under the belt,” Miller said.

“Super was nice to go away, we had work-ons from Pac Four… then coming together as a group so we know we’ve done that work there and we can come and focus as a whole 32-woman squad. That in turn will help propel us forward in terms of how we want to play as a team and our identity.

“New Zealand was unfortunate. I think we were all pretty disappointed in how we performed on the day… we’ve got a lot of fuel in the fire to come out and rectify that and do better, not only for ourselves but for the Wallaroos and how we want to represent ourselves.”