Wallaroos captain Michaela Leonard stresses the importance of backing up last week’s win as they control their own WXV 2 destiny.
The bonus point win has the Australians sitting on the top of the ladder after one round, with opponents South Africa and Scotland also taking out their opening games.
A win over South Africa will likely set up a winner-takes-all clash with the Scots if they take down Japan as expected.
“This is a crucial one with us. We’re both coming off the back of wins and Scotland in really good form at the moment,” Leonard told reporters. “Every game in this short series is crucial for us to win this tournament.
“We’re definitely looking to come out and put some of our best footy out there this weekend to try and shore up our ability to win this tournament.
The South Africans are ranked 11th in the world but the WXV competition has shown the rankings mean little once you take the field.
The Wallaroos entered 2023 as one of the lower-ranked sides but knocked off the then-ranked third French whilst seventh-ranked Ireland stunned defending champions New Zealand in Canada last weekend.
“I think now that these programs are starting to step up, and getting some more resources, we’re seeing teams improve and we’re seeing players improve as you’d expect with those sorts of changes,” Leonard said.
“I think South Africa has been full-time for coming on three years now. Some big changes in their programming as well as the Irish, Welsh and our program.
“The mood around our camp is still really positive, coming off the back of last week as we were really happy to finally put out a performance that we were capable of.
“We know the South African women aren’t to be underestimated. We know it’s going to be a really strong physical game and the home crowd advantage always makes it tough to play.
“…We know that they’ve got a really strong pack and we saw that with their scrum and line-out against Japan last week so focus this week has definitely been on that collision zone as it has been for the last few months with us.
“We’ve definitely primed and prepared for a big physical game this weekend.”
