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Wallaroos coach Jo Yapp pleads for patience following disappointing Pacific Four Series

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND - MAY 25: Head coach Joanne Yapp of Australia talks to her team after losing the 2024 Pacific Four Series Round 4 & 2024 O'Reilly Cup 1st Test match between New Zealand Black Ferns and Australia Wallaroos at North Harbour Stadium on May 25, 2024 in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

Wallaroos head coach Jo Yapp is holding onto the positives following her side’s failed World Rugby Pacific Four Series campaign, in which they lost all three matches and suffered a shock defeat to USA.

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The latest 67-19 drubbing at the hands of the Black Ferns at North Harbour Stadium on Saturday consigned them to WXV 2 and means they are yet to officially qualify for Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025.

Despite the results, though, Yapp has urged fans to be patient as the group adjusts to significant changes.

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“It’s just unfortunate that we had a really quick run in to the Pacific Four Series,” Yapp said. “We only had sort of eight days together, which has put us on the back foot a little bit.

“But we’ve shown progress over time. We’ve got a new coaching team and new players coming into the squad and that just takes a little bit of time.

“We’ve showed glimpses of some really positive stuff. There was some good character shown by the girls, they didn’t stop fighting for 80 minutes which is really good to see, so there’s a lot to work with.”

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In the 30-player squad Yapp named for the Pacific Four Series, the Wallaroos’ first outing since Rugby Australia announced more lucrative player contracts and added investment, were a whopping nine debutants while a number of regulars were notably left out.

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The changes were always going to take time to bed in and are part of a longer-term plan to peak at the World Cup, captain Michaela Leonard insists.

“We knew this wasn’t going to be a sprint, that it was going to be a long-term build over the next two years to be where we want to be at World Cup and I’m still definitely proud of the girls,” she said.

“I think we showed how much talent there is across this 23 and across the 30 over this campaign and how much potential we have when we do execute right and get our systems running.”

The team will regroup and reflect on the campaign before having the opportunity to improve ahead of WXV 2 in tests against Fiji and New Zealand back home in July.

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“We’ll be reflecting on ourselves following this campaign, but overall I think the messaging needs to be relatively positive,” Leonard added.

“We know that this is a new group both on the field in the players as well as the coaching staff, but as a group we have full faith in the players that we have, and we have full faith in the coaching staff and what they’re trying to execute.”

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Despite her first outing as head coach of an international side ending in consecutive losses, Yapp says she’s feeling confident in her role and in those around her.

“I’ve been really well supported by my team, I’ve got some really good people in place so they’re really helping with that and I’ve got a great group of players to work with so it’s good.”

With a Rugby World Cup on the horizon in England next year, Leonard believes Yapp’s Northern Hemisphere rugby nous will stand the Wallaroos in good stead.

“Having played for England as a half-back herself and her work with the Warriors over in the Prem, she’s been around high quality rugby and that Northern Hemisphere rugby for a long time,” Leonard said.

“I think having that perspective as both a coach and a player, she knows how to look at the game and break down the game from the sideline, but also from on the field and she knows how to articulate that as a coach as well.

“So, I think it’s going to work really strongly in our favour. It’s going to let us combine that little bit of Australian style play that we have, with a little bit more of that Northern Hemisphere kick-battle style and I guess come up with really good game plans depending on the opposition that we have.”

After two years under former coach Jay Tregonning, Leonard says the team is enjoying a fresh approach with Yapp and her assistants Chris Delooze and Sam Needs.

“I think they’ve all been really beneficial for us so far,” she added. “They’re really allowing us to take a little bit more control and a little bit more leadership as a playing group.

“We know what they expect from us, they’re really clear and detailed in the pictures they want us to put out on the field. I think it’s going to be a really positive relationship and I think over three weeks there’s already been a hell of a lot of learnings and I’m sure there’s going to be plenty more in the next couple of years.”

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Courtney 176 days ago

Jo Yapp is a really good coach, her record shows that. Time with the squad to get them to work with her methods, tactics and gameplan will evidence how good a coach she is

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JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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