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Trailblazer Jo Yapp breaks the mould as Wallaroos coach

Jo Yapp, the new head coach of the Australian women's rugby team, also known as the Wallaroos, speaks during a press conference in Sydney on February 19, 2024. (Photo by DAVID GRAY / AFP) / -- IMAGE RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - STRICTLY NO COMMERCIAL USE -- (Photo by DAVID GRAY/AFP via Getty Images)

Jo Yapp hopes to be a trailblazer after signing on as the first female ever to coach the Wallaroos.

Ushered in on Monday, Yapp becomes the only female head coach of an Australian senior national team in a major football code after also enjoying a decorated playing career.

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The former halfback played 70 times for England, including at three Rugby World Cups, and captained her nation to the final of the 2006 global showpiece.

Since retiring in 2009, Yapp has forged an impressive coaching career and experience in high-performance sport. She spent five years as head coach of the England U20 women’s team, was director of women’s rugby at Exeter University for eight years and the England women’s senior backs coach in the 2015 Six Nations.

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The 44-year-old says gender shouldn’t matter, but recognises her chance to showcase the skills of female coaches.

“For me, the best coach is the best coach whether that’s male or female,” Yapp said.

“But I also understand that I have got a role in terms of being a role model and seeing that there are opportunities for other coaches to come forward and to coach at an international level and also within Australia itself.

“More people can see that it’s the same as playing, in terms of being able to go, ‘right, that female was able to break through’ because I think quite often as females, we undersell ourselves.

“So we’ll see a job and just think, ‘Oh, maybe I haven’t got the experience for that’.

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“But actually you have got the same level of experience.

“So recognising that and actually giving people an opportunity is really important.

“Later, down the line, you’ll probably see more international (female) coaches because they’re starting to get those opportunities.”

Yapp’s immediate focus is on transforming the Wallaroos into a consistent top-four nation ahead of next year’s World Cup in England and ultimately the 2029 edition in Australia.

The new coach has identified strength and conditioning and game understanding as two areas in which the Wallaroos can quickly improve, especially as Rugby Australia (RA) moves towards offering full-time opportunities and pay for women’s players.

“Other nations like France, New Zealand, England, they’ve got a huge history in terms of the players starting at a really young age into the game of fifteens,” Yapp said.

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“In the Wallaroos squad, some of the players come a little bit later from other areas, so there’s a good piece of work there we can do on that.”

RA boss Phil Waugh believes Yapp’s appointment gives the Wallaroos the best chance to “go deep” at the next two World Cups.

“You’ve got to invest now. Otherwise, it’ll be too late,” Waugh said.

“Even now, we’re we’re certainly up against it for time to ensure that we continue to invest.

“Which is why the appointment of Joe full-time, leading the program and making that investment in our athletes to give them the appropriate resourcing, hopefully helps them go deep in 20 months.”

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H
Hellhound 19 minutes ago
France put World Cup pain behind them with unbeaten run in November

France is starting to look like they are finally over their WC headache, although they were lucky that NZ had a very bad game. The Argies as usual is one game good, the next bad. If they can sort that out and be more consistent, they could become contenders for the WC.


NZ, Argentina (if they are more consistent), and now the Wallabies too is in an upward curve (can they be consistent?), as well as Fiji(as inconsistent as Argentina) looks like possible contenders. The Boks will be as usual a huge threat to defend their title. Things are looking up for the South, so the North should rightfully beware of the Southern Hemisphere threat.


With the French looking dangerous, the English with their close runs (mostly a mindset problem) and the Scottish seems to be the NH main contenders. The Irish is good, but not excellent anymore. They are more overbearing and with their glory days mostly gone with old players hanging on by a thread, by 2027 if they don't start adding in the younger players, they won't make it past yet another WC Quarter final. The problem is that their youngsters, while good is nothing special.


That is just 8 teams without the Irish that can become real WC contenders. Lots of hickups to be sorted still for these teams, excluding the Boks to become a threat. Make no mistake, the top Tier is much closer than people realise and the 2027 WC will be a really great WC, possibly the best contended WC ever.

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