Wallaroos assistant coach Sione Fukofuka has challenged his “underdog” side to find their “mongrel” ahead of Friday’s WXV1 opener against England.
The Red Roses loom as Australia’s biggest challenge across the ditch and enter the inaugural WXV tournament with the world #1 ranking and a point to prove following last year’s World Cup final heartbreak in New Zealand.
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But Fukofuka says the Wallaroos won’t hold back against the heavily favoured Six Nations champions, promising to “fight fire with fire”.
“We know we’re playing number 1 (England) in the world this week, number 3 in the world next week (France) and building into a very good Welsh team, so each game we want to improve our performances.
"We have nothing but respect for England (and) we know the threats they can bring, but we’re also pretty confident that if we can get in the fight and disrupt their ball, we’re a chance at creating scoring opportunities and turnovers to play off.
"We need to be a bit more mongrel, we need to be a bit more aggressive if not a lot more aggressive in those areas around our line speed, our contact and competing at the ball both sides of the breakdown."
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"Halfback Layne Morgan shared her coach’s sentiments and teased a new style of play and confidence from the Wallaroos heading into their maiden WXV appearance.
“I think Sione really hit the nail on the head in how we’ve got to prepare physically and make sure our defensive game’s up there, but also nailing our roles and having clarity in our positions in attack so we can execute and come out there firing,” Morgan said.
“I do think we deserve to be there and are definitely top contenders in this competition.
“I think every girl out here would agree and we can’t wait to show what we’ve got this WXV. We’ve got a lot of ammo in our back pockets that teams don’t know about”.
The Wallaroos kick off against England in Wellington this Friday 20 October at 5pm AEDT. All WXV1 games will be broadcast live and on demand on Stan Sport.
