Wallaroos captain Michaela Leonard has paid tribute to their Ballymore fans following Sunday's poor showing against New Zealand.
The Australian women were dominated by the world champion Black Ferns from pillar to post on Sunday, falling 62-0 in front of a vocal crowd of 5,365 in Brisbane.
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Leonard noted the strong support despite her side's heavy loss and vowed Australia would bounce back and deliver on their potential for the remaining 2024 Test season.
"It's not the way we wanted to play and it wasn't a reflection of the skill and the effort that we have been putting in and what we can demonstrate out there," Leonard told media post-game.
"We love playing at home, there was a great crowd out there and even the opportunity to walk around the field and have fans engaging, kids getting signatures and photos was great.
"A big part of our mission is to inspire young boys and girls, mums, dads, brothers, sisters to get out and play rugby and watch the sport we love. It's unreal to see that and to see and feel like support even with the result was really special."
While the performance of Biola Dawa drew praise from both sides, Wallaroos coach Jo Yapp didn't hide her disappointment in the post-game press conference, lamenting Australia's inability to adapt to the Black Ferns high-pressure game.
Handling was of particular concern to Yapp with the fumbling Wallaroos backline a far cry from the side that dissected Fijiana a week prior in Sydney.
"We just didn't step up like we wanted to and like we've been training all week. There were glimpses of good stuff, just not for long enough.," Yapp told media.
"We some some great connection last week and we scored some excellent tries but the line speed of the Black Ferns, we just didn't adjust to that early enough and didn't give ourselves enough depth on ball. That's something to go away and have a look at."
"For us, it's finding that ability and switch within us to bring that physicality bring the intent and the mentality to win games and play those hard battles," Leonard added.
"The big one for us was maintaining possession - you can't win games or score points without holding on the ball - so whether that's our physicality (or) a little bit of individual skill out there, it's something we'll review and make sure we work on coming into the rest of the year."
All eyes now turn to the Wallaroos' upcoming Ireland tour and a looming XV2 campaign that could pit Australia against the likes of Scotland, Wales, South Africa, Italy, and Japan.
"The last few games have given us an opportunity to get quite a few new players out there and going into a WC you want to have depth," Yapp said.
Now, we turn our attention to going into friendlies and WXV where we play different opposition. To go there and play some different opposition will be really good for the whole squad and see that progress and make those steps forwards."
