Wallaroos veteran reveals team’s ‘biggest shift’ before World Cup

A lot has changed for the Wallaroos in eight years. Trilleen Pomare debuted for the national side at the 2017 Rugby World Cup, and the now 40-Test veteran is set to don the famed gold jersey yet again at the showpiece event in England over the next five weeks.

When Pomare first went to a World Cup, the Wallaroos were “thrown together a week before” the event got underway. Fast forward to today, the Australians are preparing to get their campaign off and running after playing seven Tests in 2025 already.

Australia made history at WXV 2 last October, winning their first major trophy in team history, and the women in gold have continued to build under coach Jo Yapp. They started their international season with a clinical 43-7 win over Fiji in Suva.

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Andrew Kellaway on preparing for the Boks

While the Aussies were on the wrong side of the scoreboard against New Zealand and Canada during the Pacific Four Series, there were clear signs of growth – having also knocked off the USA at Canberra’s GIO Stadium.

With another three Tests in the bank – playing the Black Ferns in Wellington and Wales twice on Australian soil – the Wallaroos are raring to go ahead of their World Cup opener this weekend against Samoa at Manchester’s Salford Community Stadium.

“That’s the biggest shift that we’ve had; just the professionalism, more gametime, more time together as well,” Pomare told reporters this week.

“This is where we’re at in terms of women’s rugby now. It’s a more professional outfit so we need to keep building that to really be competitive here.

“It’s just the consistency. We’re always known we’ve had it in us but having that time together, it’s allowed us to build a little bit more consistency, more frequent touchpoints together,” the centre added.

“There’s less time between camps and competition. We went Super W, rolled straight into international, and we’ve kind of been connected ever since until now. That’s been a huge shift into us being able to perform at this level consistently.”

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While the Wallaroos charge into their first World Cup pool match as firm favourites, they aren’t taking Samoa lightly. Manusina got the better of Australia A in a thriller in 2024, winning that clash in Apia 20-17.

But it was a different story earlier about two months ago, with Australia A defeating Samoa 50-22 at Canberra’s Viking Park – with some Wallaroos stars making their mark in that match, including former national captain Piper Duck.

Manu’a Moleka, Waiaria Ellis, Caitlin Urwin and Tabua Tuinakauvadra were some of the other current Wallaroos squad members who featured in that match.

This will be Samoa’s first match at a Women’s Rugby World Cup since 2014. With that comes a wealth of emotion and anticipation for Manusina, who just like Australia will also take on hosts England and the USA during the group stage.

“They’re a prideful nation. They’re really physical,” Pomare explained.

“You can never really take them lightly because they are a physical side. They have big girls there who will just run at you consistently.

“Just a prideful country. It really means a lot for them to put on their jersey and represent their families and their nation.

“We’re going to expect a real tough, physical battle up front from one to 15 really, they have some threats that we’re not taking lightly.

“First round as well, we’re both going to want it. We both want to start off on the front foot to make sure our campaigns on track but at the same time, we’ve just got to make sure we do our jobs up front.”