Australian sevens queen Charlotte Caslick and her prodigy Tia Hinds might have dominated the headlines from Jo Yapp’s maiden Wallaroos squad of the year, but their high-profile inclusions won’t count for anything unless their tight-five issues are resolved ahead of the World Cup.

While the Wallaroos get their season underway on May 3 against Fiji, Yapp has just 123 days to transform her forwards into international-calibre ones ahead of their World Cup opener against Samoa in Manchester.

If that’s not achieved, the Wallaroos can kiss their hopes of progressing past the pool stages of this year’s World Cup goodbye.

Of course, the additions of Caslick, Hinds and Bienne Terita in Yapp’s 40-woman squad will help.

Charlotte Caslick has been included in Jo Yapp’s 40-woman Wallaroos squad. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)

As will Maddison Levi when her work with the national sevens team wraps up early next month.

Others like Teagan Levi and Kahli Henwood will add to the depth, too.

But they’re not exactly essential either, not with Maya Stewart, Caitlyn Halse, Desiree Miller and Georgina Friedrichs already important figures in the Wallaroos backline.

Where the Wallaroos need help from their sevens sisters is up front.

The issue is that only Eva Karpani has graduated from the sevens program, and the Reds tight-head prop ranks inside the top three most important players from the Wallaroos this year.

“We can have all these amazing backs, but we’ve got to win the ball first,” Yapp, the former England halfback and captain, told reporters on Tuesday morning at Rugby Australia’s headquarters in Moore Park.

Last year’s Pacific Four Series showed that, as North American rivals Canada and the USA showed nothing extraordinary out wide, but had the Wallaroos’ pack on roller skates at the scrum and maul to post important victories on Australian shores.

But the Wallaroos will find out how far they’ve come in a year when they host their Pacific Four rivals over the next month.

It will be an important stepping stone in their preparations for the World Cup, especially given their crunch pool fixture is against the USA in York on August 31.

This year’s Super Rugby Women’s season, however, proved invaluable, with Faliki Pohiva coming from the clouds to help ease the loss of Karpani to the Reds.

Eva Karpani is one of the Wallaroos’ most important players. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

Her rawness and size also will give Yapp another tight-head prop option, while the return of Bree-Anna Browne will help on the other side.

But it’s not just at the scrum the Wallaroos need to fix, but their lineout with the crucial set-piece area plaguing several sides throughout the Super Rugby Women’s competition.

“Sam [Needs], obviously our forwards coach, has been putting an awful lot of work into that behind the scenes, and already having conversations previously with our lineout leaders,” Yapp said.

“We’re creating more depth around that front row. We’ve obviously got someone like Faliki coming in. We’ve got Bree from Reds who’s returning.

“So, we’ve got more depth in that front-row than we had this time last year with the players that have come through, which allows us to really train and put ourselves under more pressure in training situations as well.”

Yapp added that nailing rugby’s fundamentals remained a crucial element to fix over the coming months.

“We can have the best systems in the world, but that kind of individual tackle technique, the ability to catch-pass under pressure, our groundwork, these are just the fundamentals and it sounds really simple, but that’s been our absolute big focus,” she said.

As for the competition for places, Yapp played down the tension that is naturally about to heat up, especially with the arrival of the new sevens women on the block.

“We’ve been really transparent through this whole process,” Yapp said. “It’s not like all of a sudden we’re just bringing them in. We’ve been really clear with the players. They recognise that for us to be successful, we want to take the best players to the World Cup, and if they’re part of that squad, then they’re part of the squad.

“Even just knowing that those [sevens] players are putting their hand up, we’ve seen real growth because the competition for places is there.”

Wallaroos coach Jo Yapp admits will trim her squad from 40 to 30. (Photo by Hanna Lassen/Getty Images for Rugby Australia)

Interestingly, the Brumbies had as many players selected in the squad as the Waratahs (13) despite not making the finals. The Reds had nine and the Force five.

Yapp explained that the Brumbies’ high representation simply came down to the fact that several of their players met what the Wallaroos needed.

“I think they were super unfortunate to miss the finals,” Yapp said.

“Every game came down to some really tight, tight decisions, so it wasn’t that they weren’t playing well.

“But individually, we’ve seen some players down their transition positions, so people like Kat [Amosa] and Martha [Fua], they’ve transferred and they’ve gone to the front row. So, they’re players that have put their hands up that were not on the radar as much last year.”

The Wallaroos are scheduled to play seven Tests ahead of their World Cup opener, which is considerably more than their Pacific Four rivals, who will play no more than five Tests.

Yapp, who is contracted through until October, said the heavy schedule was down to the fact they needed to get more games under their belt.

“Just from the experiences of last year, the growth in the girls was massive,” she said.

“As we know, we don’t play enough games here. There’s not enough games in Super to really challenge the players.

“The more competitive games we can get, the better, because we’re competing against teams from the Northern Hemisphere that are coming off the back of a really intensive premiership season where they get a lot of games.

“We need to be able to make sure we’re creating opportunities for our players as well.”

WALLAROOS 2025 TEST SCHEDULE

• Saturday, May 3: Fijiana v Wallaroos, HFC Bank Stadium, Suva – 3:00pm AEST
• Saturday, May 10: Wallaroos v Black Ferns, McDonald Jones Stadium, Newcastle – 3:00pm AEST (Pacific Four Series)
• Saturday, May 17: Wallaroos v USA, GIO Stadium, Canberra – 4:55pm AEST (Pacific Four Series)
• Friday, May 23: Wallaroos v Canada, Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane – 4:55pm AEST (Pacific Four Series)
• Saturday, July 12: Black Ferns v Wallaroos, Sky Stadium, Wellington – 2:30pm AEST (O’Reilly Cup)
• Saturday, July 26: Wallaroos v Wales, Ballymore Stadium, Brisbane – 2:00pm AEST
• Friday, August 1: Wallaroos v Wales, North Sydney Oval – 7:00pm AEST

RUGBY WORLD CUP 2025

• Saturday, August 23: Wallaroos v Samoa, Salford Community Stadium, Manchester – 9:00pm AEST
• Sunday, August 31: Wallaroos v USA at York Community Stadium, York – 4:30am AEST
• Sunday, September 7: Wallaroos v England at Brighton and Hove Stadium, Brighton and Hove – 2:00am AEST