Wallaroos target South Africa for successive WXV2 wins

Tue, Oct 1, 2024, 10:11 PM
Melissa Woods - AAP
by Melissa Woods - AAP

The Wallaroos are savouring their best performance under coach Jo Yapp, but centre Georgina Friedrichs says they aren't satisfied.

The Australian women have set their sights on going back-to-back in the WXV2 rugby tournament, next taking on hosts South Africa in Cape Town.

Watch the Wallaroos tackle South Africa live and exclusively on Stan Sport.

The 37-5 victory over Wales in their tournament opener was sweet revenge after their six-game winning streak against the Welsh was snapped two weeks earlier.

It had left the Wallaroos with just one win from seven matches since English coach Yapp took over at the start of the year.

Friedrichs said her Australian teammates were delighted to see some pay-off after their months of hard work.

"I think the spirits are definitely high after that win," the 29-year-old said.

"The last few weeks we've been showing glimpses of what we've been doing at training but just little mistakes were creeping into our game, so to be able to cut those mistakes out and actually put everything that we've been training into fruition, it was actually a really fun game to play.

"After a rough couple of weeks it was good to finally put 80 minutes together so spirits are high, but we're not taking this week lightly."

South Africa beat Japan 31-24 in their first match and while they don't enjoy the same status as their world champion male counterparts, Friedrichs said they couldn't be taken lightly in the clash (Saturday 0100 AEST.)

"In their last few games they've got a couple wins, so they're on the rise," she said.

"They have a very strong forward pack so we expect to see big things from their forward pack this weekend but nothing that we can't match.

"They have a couple of sevens players in the back line - Nadine Roos at 10, she's pretty handy, and Libbie Janse van Rensburg at fullback and she gets over the ball pretty quick.

"So we've definitely recognised the threats in the back line and how we're going to mitigate that as well."

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