The key work-ons for Wallaroos as they target WXV 2 glory against Scotland

Backrower Siokapesi Palu has described the Wallaroos’ opportunity to compete for the WXV 2 title this weekend as “super exciting” while also explaining the team’s key work-ons ahead of their clash with Scotland in Cape Town.

Australia are one win away from securing the WXV 2 crown after registering solid wins over Wales and South Africa so far in the competition. Jo Yapp’s team appear to be full of confidence as they set their sights on Scotland, who are also unbeaten in their two matches.

The Scots got the better of Italy 19-nil in an opening-round shutout before claiming a win over Japan 19-13 in their second fixture. Iroha Nagata scored a try for Japan in the 66^th minute to leave the game in the balance with time quickly running out.

But, with Scotland hanging on for a tense win, the stage is set for a final-round decider between two in-form sides. As Wallaroos enforcer Palu briefly discussed, the women in gold are looking forward to the challenge while acknowledging they aren’t the finished product.

“It’s super exciting. Particularly the last two games, you could see that there’s been a huge improvement across the whole team in terms of our off-field and on-field stuff,” Palu told reporters on Tuesday.

“You could see that there are definitely some exciting elements that you saw in the game against South Africa, but at the same time, there is a challenge ahead just knowing that we’ve definitely got work-ons too to fix.”

The Wallaroos’ resilience and high-level of professionalism has put them in with a shot on taking out the World Rugby-run competition. The Aussies fell to their first-ever loss to Wales just before the tournament but bounced back against the same foe in WXV 2.

Australia dominated Wales to win 37-5 at Cape Town’s DHL Stadium before putting in another solid performance in their round two win over South Africa. With Springboks captain Siya Kolisi watching on at Athlone Stadium, the visitors made their mark.

Palu scored the opening try of the contest in the third minute before centre Georgina Friedrichs crossed for another five-pointer soon after. Tighthead prop Eva Karpani also scored a try as the Wallaroos took a 21-12 lead into the half-time break.

Wingers Desiree Miller and Maya Stewart crossed for a try each during the second term as the Wallaroos put themselves in a strong position. While the Springbok Women never gave up – scoring two tries inside the last 10 minutes – time wasn’t on their side.

But, even with that 33-26 win, the Wallaroos know they need to be better.

“Discipline is a key focus for us this week, as well as the energy that we continue to build on from the last couple of weeks,” Palu added.

“Look, South Africa, we definitely knew that they were going to come at us strong and we probably let our guards down a little bit in that second half.

“We know against a more clinical side like Scotland, we definitely have to make sure that we play for 80 minutes. Seems to be a continuous pattern with us this year.

“I don’t question our intent,” she added. “We generally want to score and get it right but probably just poorly executed at times and that’s just something that an individual has to manage on their own.

“But, overall, you could see the two disallowed tries shows that we definitely have it within us. It just comes with a little bit more control within our game management. But it’s exciting – you can see girls are taking opportunities when they can.”

The Wallaroos take on Scotland in Cape Town at 2:00am AEDT on Sunday morning.