Interim Wallaroos coach Sam Needs believes the depth growing within the program will only raise the standards as they prepare for their opening Tests of 2026.
Needs named ten debutants as part of the squad to face Fijiana and take part in the Pacific Four Series, including Sevens duo Piper Simons and Sidney Taylor, with Siokapesi Palu Sekona confirmed as captain.
Watch every Wallaroos match in 2026 live and on demand via Stan Sport Both joined the program during their training camps last month, after missing selection for the SVNS World Series at the start of the year.
"I think the best thing is that we've got those girls that potentially will be on the sidelines from the Sevens and they're still involved in footy, which is great and they want to be playing," Needs said to the media.
"For some of them, it's a new experience and they've really added a level of professionalism to the group. The way they've handled themselves has been outstanding.
With the Super Rugby Women's schedule shifted to after the SVNS Championship, GM of Women's High Performance Jilly Collins forecasted further involvement from the Sevens program ahead of a stacked Test calendar that includes the WXV Global Series in September and two Tests against Scotland.
"There's one tournament that makes it slightly complicated, but we certainly will likely see a number of those Sevens players having full or partial involvement in Super Rugby Women's this season and in ongoing seasons," Collins said.
"It's something that we're really open about, that we want our best players available, on form and in optimal capacity during those pinnacle events. We meet weekly with the sevens and the fifteens teams to discuss players and potential crossovers and involvements in the sevens and fifteens programme.
"It's obviously a two-way street now, which is great. We have Maya [Stewart] debuting for the Australian sevens in Singapore, and other players that are going through across both programmes [like] Piper and Sidney coming into the Pac-4 squad. So, you'll see a lot more of that over the next four years."
There were several notable omissions from the squad that featured at the 2025 Rugby World Cup.
2025 Player of the Year Tabua Tuinakauvadra will be out for a couple of months with a knee injury, while teenage fullback Caitlyn Halse has had a disrupted pre-season due to injury.
"Caitlyn's picked up quite a few back-to-back injuries in the pre-season, which has been unfortunate," Needs said. "She had her first week of close-to-full training last week, so we're actually catching up with her later this afternoon just to map out a timeline, a bit of a plan for her to get her back to her world-class best, which we saw the best of her at the World Cup."
All-time cap leader Ashley Marsters also missed out, with the door still open for a return despite not being included in the managed squad for 2026
"It's not unusual for players post Rugby World Cups to want a bit of time out and Ash indicated to us that she did," Collins notes.
"She's been doing her own thing for the last few months, had a great conversation with her a couple of weeks ago and explained that the route through back for selection, given her time out, would be through playing Super Rugby Women's.
"She's indicated that she's going to be playing for the Western Force again, which is great and really excited to see her return and put her hand up for selection for the Wallaroos program in the latter part of the season."
