Jo Yapp named Wallaroos head coach in historic appointment
England's Jo Yapp will become the first female head coach of a senior Australian football team after being named as Wallaroos boss, replacing Jay Tregonning.
Yapp will take charge of the women's national team until at least the end of 2025, replacing Jay Tregonning. She becomes the only female head coach of an Australian senior national team in a major football code, having played 70 times for England, including at three Rugby World Cups, and captaining her nation to the 2006 final.
Since ending her playing career in 2009, the former halfback has developed an impressive background in rugby coaching and high-performance sport.
She spent five years as head coach of the England under-20s women, was director of women's rugby at Exeter University for eight years, and England women's senior backs coach in the 2015 Six Nations.
"It is a great honour to be appointed head coach of a proud rugby nation such as Australia," Yapp said.
"I have fond recollections of battling Australia as a player, and you cannot help but be impressed by the strides the Wallaroos have made in the past couple of years.
"For a semi-professional team to reach the knockout stages of the World Cup last year, and to then finish third in the WXV tournament this year is a huge testament to the talent in the country."
Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh is eager to see Yapp use her experience with the Wallaroos.
"This appointment is a crucial one as we work towards our goal of continuing to grow women's rugby in Australia," Waugh said.
"It is a huge opportunity for our game as we continue to grow sustainably as investment increases in the coming years.
"We now have our first ever full-time coach of the Wallaroos, we have hired our first women's high-performance manager, and we are seeing continual year-on-year growth in participation of women and girls in the community."
Waugh on Monday indicated the appointment of a new men's high-performance director was imminent and that a replacement for Eddie Jones, who dramatically quit just 10 months into a five-year contract, would hopefully follow early next year.
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Great piece Nick, plenty to chew on. Loved this ‘biases’ line from Geoff, shows he is a thinker - “If you asked me for a shortlist of coaches who appealed to my biases, he would be on it.” I think Schmidt is towing a similar line to Rennie in regards to OS players, he is publicly saying he prefers local talent, but almost certainly will be fighting to have the likes of skelton in the team. Interesting to hear the backroom on the rebels and what a cockup that is, just when you think RA admin has hit rock bottom it digs deeper. Other bit that caught my eye was his skills focus on things like passing from 7s at the base of the lineout, great little details. but also scary that a SR level 8 didn’t know how to operate within a lineout - telling!
Go to commentsShannon Frizell’s second year is optional is how I heard it. Given nothing has been confirmed yet it gets more and more likely he signs to return next year. Cant wait to see Finau doing more work on Internal players.
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