6 May 2025
Good Morning G&GRs and welcome to another Tuesday. If you haven’t had a chance to catch up on Bris’s excellent summary of the weekend’s Super Rugby games you can find it here. There was plenty of other rugby action on the weekend with the Wallaroos taking on Fiji in Suva, the Sevens headed to Los Angeles for the World Championships and the referees for the Lions test matches announced. It’s also getting into the season for club rugby, so if you get a chance, get down and support your local club on the weekend. Let’s get straight into it.
Wallaroos get the job done against Fiji
The Wallaroos had their first hit out of the season against Fiji in Suva and put in a dominant performance. There was a party atmosphere in Suva with the game played following the Drua/Reds match.
Fiji got off to a good start with their captain Fisher crashing over from close range after some early possession and territory. It was 7-0 after 7 minutes, and it looked like perfect conditions for running rugby, and maybe an upset to Fiji.
The Wallaroos had other plans though and despite a yellow card to Minns they dominated territory and possession to score 5 tries and take a 31-7 lead into half time. Caitlyn Halse got Australia on the scoreboard with a good finish to a quick tap from a penalty. Bienne Terita scored the next two, running a good line on the left hand side after a quick tap, and then finishing in the left hand corner. All of a sudden it was 19-7 to the Wallaroos after 25 minutes.
There was some impressive individual play for the Wallaroos with Pohiva having a great start to the match, making good runs, securing a turnover, and making great tackles. #8 Tuinakauvadra caused havoc with a 50 metre carry from a kick-ff.
Some early injury worries for the Wallaroos as Maya Stewart left the field after 17 minutes with a knee injury, and then Terita succumbed to an injury after scoring her second try after 25 minutes. This brought Trilleen Pomare and Charlotte Caslick into the game earlier than expected, but it didn’t seem to impact the Wallaroos momentum. Hopefully neither of the injuries are serious and we see Stewart and Miller back for the Pacific 4 tournament.
Fiji couldn’t find a way to get back into the game, and the Wallaroos were in control of territory and possession, leading to captain Siokapesi Palu scoring a powerful try after 30 minutes before Desiree Miller got into the action just before half time, courtesy of a cutout pass from Halse to score in the left corner. Moleka couldn’t add the extras and it was 31-7 to the Wallaroos at half time.
One of the take aways from the first half was the Australian scrum, they managed to win a two scrum penalties to put pressure on Fiji.
Second Half
The second half started at pace with both teams wanting to play at pace and get their offload games going. Fiji looked dangerous when they did this, but too often they pushed their luck and spilled the ball in promising situations.
The Wallaroos got back on the board at 50 minutes courtesy of halfback Morgan with a quick tap from a maul penalty. The game got a bit scrappy for a while with both teams continuing to try and keep the tempo up, but ambition exceeded execution too often and there plenty of handling errors and stoppages. Among the scrappiness, the Wallaroos put their maul into action again and reserve hooker Tania Naden got across the line after 64 minutes.
In all there were 6 debutantes for Australia, with Charlotte Caslick, Katalina Amosa, Tia Hinds, Falika Pohiva, Martha Fua, and Ashley Fernandez all earning their first caps. Congratulations to all and here’s to many more to come.
It was a good hitout for the Aussies as they got their season off to a winning start. Layne Morgan showed her class all game, and Desiree Miller was dangerous every time she had the ball. Miller could also show some of the want-to-be Wallaby wingers a thing or two about defence with great tackling throughout. Last but not least, fullback Caitlyn Halse continues to show her class and is a genuine run, kick, and pass threat at the back.
A good first up match, though plenty to work on ahead of the Kiwis next week in Newcastle, particularly execution in the second half. Let’s hope the Wallaroos have better luck in Newcastle than the Wallabies have to date.
Sevens world championship in Los Angeles
The Sevens headed to Los Angeles for the final round and to see who would be crowned world champions for season 2024/25. The women’s team headed into the weekend in second place on the ladder, and the men’s team in sixth place, well out of the end of season placings, but looking to make an impact in the final tournament for the season.
The Aussie men were two from 3 in the pool matches, with victories against Spain (15-10) and Fiji (15-14), before going down to New Zealand (21-19). The 2 from 3 record would consign them to a 5th place play off against France, and unfortunately, France were red hot and ran away with it 33-7 to leave Australia in sixth place for the tournament, mirroring their position going into the tournament. Ultimately South Africa won the tournament.
The women’s team had a better run through the pools seeing off Fiji (26-5), the USA (33-12), and France (33-17). This put them into the cup finals where they ran over the top of Canada 33-7 to set up another cup final clash with New Zealand.
New Zealand were too good for Australia in the final, and it was really the defence that set up the victory for New Zealand. New Zealand scored first through Jorja Miller, who was incredible again, before they shut Australia down defensively. The Aussies seemed to spend most of the first half trying to run the ball out of their 22 to no avail, the Kiwi defence was a black wall, and eventually the turnover came and New Zealand scored again and went to half time 12-0 up.
The Aussies scored first in second half to be in it at 12-7, but the Kiwis kept on shutting down the Aussie attack, and kept scoring tries every time they got the ball. Ultimately the Kiwis ran out with it 31-7 and were the deserved winners. Credit to the Aussie women’s team, they are a young team going through a rebuilding phase, with some champion players not available due to commitments in the 15s game.
With the season done and dusted, congratulations to New Zealand women’s team who were the dominant force throughout the season, but chased all the way by the Aussies.
In terms of individual awards this year, New Zealand’s excellent Jorja Miller, and Argentina’s Luciano González were named women’s and men’s player of the year, respectively.
And of course, Maddi Levi backed up her player of the year award in 2024 by being the leading try scorer for 2025 and along with impressive new captain Bella Nasser made the 2025 team of the year. Of course the Kiwis dominated here as well with three players making the team of the year as Jorja Miller, Michaela Brake, and Risi Pouri-Lane, joined Thalia Costa from Brazil and Marin Kajiki from Japan. There’s some pace and power in that group.
Referees for the Lions series
As reported by World Rugby late last week, the referee appointments for the Lions series are out with Ben O’Keeffe, Andrea Piardi and Nika Amashukeli in charge of the first, second and third tests, respectively.
There’ll be a lot of chat before, during and after the series about the referees. Hopefully we won’t have any of the Rassie sort of behaviour towards them, regardless of the outcome of the matches. I think what will be as important as the referees on the field is the involvement (or not) of the TMOs.
Wallabies team of the week.
I’m letting the team down this week, as in, I don’t feel like I watched the weekend’s games closely enough to pick a team of the week this week. Happy to take suggestions and I’ll add them to the season tally.
That’s a wrap
That’s a wrap for me this week, as always, thanks again for making it this far and I look forward to the comments.
Cheers
