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Hello everyone at The Roar – it’s been a while since you’ve heard from me!
No, I haven’t been writing anywhere else, but I have stayed heavily involved in rugby. In fact my coaching commitments have expanded this year; I’ve been given a great opportunity by the ARU as the Assistant Coach of the Australian Women’s team – the Wallaroos.
This week I’m in New Zealand with the team as we prepare for two Tests against New Zealand, the first of which is part of a double header on Saturday night at Eden Park where we’ll be playing immediately before the Wallabies play the All Blacks.
When I was offered the position I hadn’t watched any international women’s rugby and, even though I’m a rugby tragic, I knew very little about the Wallaroos!
H
ow can that be? Well, quite simply I was ignorant – partly that’s because women’s rugby gets such little publicity. But also even if I had read or heard something about the Wallaroos in the past, I’d obviously not paid any attention. I’m sure I wouldn’t be alone in admitting that.
To make sure I knew more about the women’s game before starting my coaching role I spent a fair bit of time catching up on women’s rugby from all around the world.
Even before I started watching matches I did some research and not surprisingly I learnt that New Zealand (the Black Ferns) are the unrivalled world number one in women’s rugby, having won four of the last five World Cups.
I started my viewing experience with the last time the Wallaroos played a Test match – 2014 at the last Women’s Rugby World Cup.
That World Cup was won by England. It was the first time New Zealand haven’t won the World Cup in 20 years largely due to a major upset when Ireland beat them 17-14 in their pool match which ultimately led to the Black Ferns missing out on the semi-finals and finishing fifth in the tournament.
The Wallaroos finished the 2014 World Cup in seventh place after narrow losses to France in their pool match and the USA in the playoffs. They won their three other matches in the tournament.
I’ve now seen a fair bit of women’s rugby including a range of other international matches from the Women’s Six Nations to a couple of tournaments in North America featuring New Zealand, Canada, England, USA and France.
From all the matches I’ve watched one thing is very clear to me – the players are just that – rugby players, regardless of gender. There are some very talented players who perform at a very high level, just as you see watching games played by males.
It’s clear that the standard of women’s rugby all over the world is improving rapidly and the skills of most players are comparable to their male counterparts. You’ll have some idea of the skill level in the women’s game if you watched the Olympic Sevens, but what you may not be prepared for (and I certainly wasn’t) is the level of physicality in the 15s game.
The strength, speed and fitness of female players is not at the same level as most male players but I bet the level will surprise many, many people watching women’s rugby for the first time.
In fact two of the biggest hits I’ve seen in any rugby match I’ve watched this year were at the Women’s National Championships held in Sydney in June. The tackles were ferocious, yet both players involved in each tackle got up from the clashes and got straight back into the game. I was really impressed!
My background is coaching some of Australia’s most promising talent in club rugby, where most players have had a lot of exposure to high-level programs for some time and are therefore quite experienced, even if they are very young.
I’ve found that most of the women I’ve been coaching this year haven’t had anywhere near that level of exposure, and are like sponges when introduced to new or different concepts and methods. It’s extremely rewarding as a coach and I’m thoroughly enjoying it.
The tour to New Zealand is part of our build-up to next year’s World Cup in Ireland. The preparation started with a training camp last year for a squad of just over 40 players. It’s continued this year with another training camp for 35 players.
The ARU have committed additional funds over the last couple of years to develop and expand the rugby program for women and to back the Wallaroos.
Head Coach Paul Verrell, who also took the team to the 2014 World Cup, tells me that the resources available for today’s team are significantly more than even just a couple of years ago.
Women’s rugby has recently received a massive boost with the ARU securing the first ever naming rights sponsor for the Wallaroos in the form of Buildcorp, who are obviously heavily involved in sponsoring rugby at many levels of the game.
Fortunately for us the principals of Buildcorp, Josephine Sukkar and her husband Tony, are massive supporters of the women’s game in Australia.
As well as sponsoring the Wallaroos they’ve also taken on the naming rights for the Women’s National Titles.
We’re hoping to expand the program for the team next year before the World Cup, but unfortunately the women’s game is still largely amateur. Going away on tour means players and staff have to take unpaid leave from their jobs so just organising more tours to play additional matches isn’t an ideal solution.
While in New Zealand we’re playing a match against Auckland tonight, the first Test at Eden Park on Saturday and a second Test on Tuesday.
Three matches in eight days adds to the challenge but we’ve got a good squad of 26 players on tour and I expect we’ll be very competitive.
Yes, Auckland have won 15 of the last 17 New Zealand titles so tonight’s match will be very tough.
Yes, our first Test is at Eden Park but that ground holds no hoodoo for the Wallaroos because we haven’t played there before.
Yes, we haven’t played a match against anyone since the 2014 World Cup, but New Zealand have only played three Tests in that time and this will be their first Test of the year, so that shouldn’t be a real disadvantage for us.
Yes, New Zealand are ranked number one in the world while we are ranked number six, but rankings won’t determine how each team plays on the day.
Yes, the Wallaroos have never beaten the Black Ferns but that gives us a fantastic opportunity to be the first Australian team to do so.
Even though the Bledisloe Cup will remain in New Zealand’s hands for at least this year, we’ll do our best to bring the Laurie O’Reilly Cup back on the plane with us when we return from New Zealand.
Hopefully, you’ll get an opportunity to see the Wallaroos in action even if you aren’t making the trip to New Zealand, as it appears Fox Sports will be providing coverage of the Eden Park Test match.
I’m sure any rugby supporter who watches our matches won’t be disappointed, regardless of whether you’ve seen a women’s match before or not.
To keep up to date with our results on tour check in through Twitter through my account @ScottA_ or the Wallaroos account @WallaroosRugby. There will also be match reports on rugby.com.au.