Wallaroos edge towards their version of the 'Matildas effect'

Earlier this year, when speaking about the Wallaroos contesting the 2029 World Cup on home soil, Rugby Australia (RA) president Kristy Giteau revealed her dream.

"I envision packed stadiums, girls screaming after a game to get an autograph by one of our Wallaroos players," she said in June.

Giteau and her RA colleagues are hoping the Wallaroos will create a similar buzz to that generated by the Matildas at the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, which was co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.

Many have described this as the "Matildas effect", with the inspiring run to the semifinals triggering a massive spike in female participation numbers and driving record TV audiences.

RA knows the Wallaroos — ranked ninth in the world — must improve on the field to achieve a similar impact, although this relies heavily on the ongoing process of shifting the program to full-time status.

The players and coaches are doing their part, as illustrated in last weekend's encouraging performance against world champions England.

Despite the 48-15 defeat in Salford, the Wallaroos produced an effort suggesting they can be competitive at the World Cup in three years' time.

They led 10-5 at half-time, which was uncharted territory for the England squad.

The Red Roses hadn't trailed at the half-time break since 2020.

This wasn't a fluke, as the Wallaroos played with aggression in both attack and defence, forcing the Red Roses to make uncharacteristic mistakes.

But it wasn't just the Wallaroos' physicality in the first half that was impressive.

The build-up to prop Faliki Pohiva's 31st-minute try showed they'd identified weaknesses in England's defensive formation and line-out.

Test rugby, though, is an 80-minute game and the Red Roses steamrolled the Wallaroos in the second half, scoring seven tries to one.

This was largely due to the fact they're on a full-time program and their superior strength and conditioning shone through against the semi-professional Wallaroos.

Honourable defeats won't count at the World Cup, but given where the Wallaroos are at this stage of their journey, they deservedly took positives from the result against England.

"It was a pretty good outcome for us, that first 40 minutes," Wallaroos scrum half Samantha Wood said.

"I think the confidence was gaining throughout the half, when we defended our line successfully a few times, and then being able to score one try … it gave us a lot of confidence."

'Intent and purpose'

The Wallaroos want to build upon the confidence Wood spoke about as they prepare to face world number four France in Aix-en-Provence on Sunday morning, AEST.

The coaching staff have drilled into the squad the need to maintain an aggressive approach for more than one half of rugby.

"A lot of the momentum that we did build was off the back of our intent and purpose around contact and collision [on] both sides of the ball," Wallaroos assistant coach Mike Ruthven said.

"A lot of our focus [against France] will be making sure we're really consistent in that contact and collision space.

"You take a huge amount of confidence out of that [England Test] but it's our capacity to be able to sustain that and be really consistent over 80 minutes that is ultimately what we're chasing."

Implementing an effective game plan is just one of the Wallaroos' goals during their three-Test European sojourn as part of the WXV Global Series, which also includes a clash with Scotland in Edinburgh on September 27.

With an eye on the World Cup, blooding players to build depth is among their priorities.

Winger Amelia Whitaker started against England in her first Test, while reserve forward Jemma Bemrose was also given a debut.

Another winger, Piper Flynn, has the chance to earn her a Test cap after she was named on the bench to play France.

RA director of women's high performance Tim Walsh, who's essentially caretaker head coach until Sione Fukofuka assumes the role next year, made it clear to 23-year-old Flynn she's not on tour to make up the numbers.

"He's given me a lot of confidence in myself," Flynn said.

"As he said to me, and I'm sure to a lot of the other girls, we've been picked here for a reason."

That reason is to build towards the World Cup.

As RA dreams of enjoying its version of the Matildas effect in 2029, Flynn doesn't want to miss out on the action.

"It's a really exciting target to work towards," Flynn said.

"It gives us all a little bit of fire in our belly to try and build up and grow stronger, and grow our game to push towards winning a home World Cup."