More tours will help Wallaroos

Tue, Jun 28, 2016, 5:26 AM
AAP
by AAP
The Wallaroos squad is set to be selected later this week with the National Women's XVs Championship giving plenty of headaches for selectors.

Buildcorp principal Josephine Sukkar says the more Tests the Wallaroos can play ,the better they’ll be ahead of the 2017 World Cup.

Sukkar, also an Australian Rugby Foundation director, said ideally the women would have chances to play in the northern hemisphere ahead of the 2017 World Cup, but Bledisloe double header was a nice sweetener.

“We're so excited for the girls, we came on board to try and give them a real crack at their World cup next year in Ireland so our focus has been on Ireland and how do we get them to optimise their chances of winning,” she said.

“They need more Test matches, they need more exposure to playing.”

Sukkar said more corporate support would help generate the resources needed to add experience to the women’s side.

“We are working really hard at the Australian Rugby Foundation of which I've become a director, to try and encourage some corporates to come on board to help us get the girls one more tournament, a northern hemisphere tournament for the girls to play in before they go over.

While resources are stretched, Sukkar said ideally the Wallaroos would play at least one tournament in the north before the August World Cup.

“In our head we thought we might be able to get a tournament in Northern Hemisphere before they play in Ireland.

“This Bledisloe on top of it is so fantastic, we'll have more capped players,  we're a little bit light on at the moment so it's wonderful.”

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