Jo Yapp reflects on first year as Wallaroos coach

Almost a year into the job as Wallaroos coach, Jo Yapp is finally becoming acquainted with Australia.

The country that is, not the team. For even though she spread herself far and wide over the course of the year it’s only now that Yapp feels like she has her feet on the ground and under the desk, able to stay at her Sydney base for an extended period to plan and prepare for what’s ahead.

It’s been relentless, a whirlwind, but ultimately, it’s also been a successful year for the Wallaroos first-ever full-time coach. It wasn’t shaping up that way, but with Rugby World Cup qualification achieved and the WXV 2 trophy in the cabinet clear strides have been made and the Wallaroos have started to show signs of the force they could become.

The start of Yapp’s tenure was rough as Australia lost all three Pacific Four matches and the O’Reilly series against New Zealand to find themselves playing in the second tier of WXV. With the value of hindsight, Yapp says that was probably the best thing that could have happened to them.

“I had to really push with the players and with Rugby Australia, that WXV 2 is, and would be, a really tough competition because all of those teams have got well-established full-time programmes and play a lot more rugby than what we have in the past,” Yapp says.

 “So it was really important for us, yes, to go away and to get some wins but to be really challenged; there wasn't one easy game in that comp for us and we learned loads from it, but at the same time came away having got some success.”

The WXV 2 title is hardly the culmination of Yapp’s plan, more like just the start, but it proved what she’d been saying all year; that progress was being made even if the results didn’t come early on. However, Yapp felt she needed to maintain the courage of her convictions and keep reinforcing the longer term goals to both players and staff despite what the scoreboards were saying.

“I had to really remain strong to my values and the values we had as a squad, which was to focus on good people, team first. I always tried to be really transparent with the players about our decision-making, around selection and around what we're trying to do as a programme.” 

Yapp says they also tweaked the leadership group and the players had a lot of input into what that looked like “We did a lot of work on connection and some of our culture and I think that allowed us go actually, despite the results we are we have got growth which I think enabled us to keep moving forward.”

The 70-cap former England scrum-half laid the groundwork back in January with one-to-one meetings with every player when she first arrived, tripping around the five Super W franchises and working across multiple time zones to get the lay of the land…. the vast land.

“Everything is so far away,” she laughs. “It was a lot to take on board and worse when I went back to England for a spell as we also had players in Japan, so that was a challenge in itself, but I wanted to try to get to know them, understand what their why was, what their background was, what their aspirations are, and just really getting to know them as people.”

That foundation and getting buy-in from the rugby community became even more important when Yapp made some tough selection calls for the Pacific Four, leaving out well-known regulars like Emily Robinson, Ivania Wong, Sera Naiqama, Annabelle Codey and Carys Dallinger

“I wanted people to see that as a new coaching group, we were a new set of eyes and ultimately, we were picking on form, so it was really important that we were fair around that and anyone that didn't make the selection we had conversations with and explained the reasons,” Yapp reflects. 

“It's always going to be challenging when new coaches come in and they see things slightly differently. We obviously didn't get results to start with, but I think by sticking with some of those players, the youngsters or kind of fringe players in the past, they really benefited from that time of being in the squad and came to fruition with how they then stepped up and performed in WXV 2.”

It's all added up to a group of players better for the adversity, who’ve now had a chance to enjoy the feeling of winning again, and coaches with a bigger playing base to choose from as they head into World Cup year. 

Yapp still has significant injuries to contend, most notably prop Brianna Hoy, who ruptured her ACL just prior to WXV and will be in a race against time to be fit for RWC. But with Emily Chancellor, Adiana Talakai and Piper Duck all likely to be fit for the start of Super W, Yapp hopes her players roll into 2025 with a newfound drive and competitive edge.

They’ll need it. Grouped in perhaps the toughest World Cup pool, on paper at least it seems the Wallaroos and the USA will be battling it out for the second quarter-final place behind England, although Samoa, who Australia play in their opener in Manchester, is a match to be wary of.

As to the question Yapp is asked ad nauseam– whether sevens stars like the Levi sisters and Charlotte Caslick will be available for the World Cup – she says they have to take a very considered approach.

“Unlike some of the other nations, who when they bring sevens players in they've got a lot of fifteens experience, a lot of our girls don't have that background. Some, [like Bienne Terita and Alysia Lefau-Fakaosilea], have got a little bit but how do we get fifteens experience for them to be the best that they can be for us as well, so it needs to be well mapped out and carefully planned.”

Beyond the World Cup, Yapp sees a healthy eco-system despite some of issues Rugby Australia has had in general in the past few years. She believes Super W has the foundations to grow like PWR and for players to be in full time professional training environments week-in-week out. However, the challenge from other sports that rugby has in retaining top players is greater than any other nation has to contend with.

“Our vision long term is to be a top-four team, and I think we have the capability of doing that, providing that the right support is put in place. We continue to develop a Super W hub so that they can train full-time and have internal pathways to bring players through,” she says. “If they get all that right, there is no reason why they can't challenge because there's no lack of talent in this country, it's huge, but it's just keeping them in the game.”

For now, though, Australia’s new coaching mastermind is enjoying being able to do the school pickup for the first time in a year and preparing for a summer Christmas. Beach time and barbeques are ahead but an autumn back in England remains at the forefront of Jo Yapp’s mind, as a dream World Cup awaits.