Wallaroos announce Jo Yapp as new full-time head coach

Tue, Dec 12, 2023, 10:26 AM
Nathan Williamson

Rugby Australia has confirmed the appointment of highly-regarded English coach Jo Yapp to take over the Wallaroos on a full-time basis.

Yapp has signed a two-year deal to join the program after the departure of Jay Tregonning at the end of WXV 1, the only female head coach of an Australian senior national team in a major football code.

The former Red Rose played 70 games for her country, including at three World Cups in 1998, 2002 and 2006 World Cup, captaining them to the Final.

This was followed by a transition into coaching, joining England's U20 program and helping issue in a golden generation of talent as head coach for five years

Yapp was promoted from skills coach to director of rugby at Worcester, taking the club to sixth in the English comp before they folded.

She has also coached the Barbarians on two occasions, eager to take the Australian program to the next level after a positive 2023 season.

“It is a great honour to be appointed head coach of a proud Rugby nation such as Australia,” said Jo Yapp. "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. I have seen some of that up close in recent years too, with some of the Australian players having stints in the English Premiership.

“I am looking forward to getting started, getting to know the players, and building further towards the 2025 Rugby World Cup.”

Yapp will work closely with National Women’s High-Performance Manager Jaime Fernandez in helping the Wallaroos continue the transition to full-time.

“This appointment is a crucial one as we work towards our goal of continuing to grow Women’s Rugby in Australia,” said CEO Paul Waugh. “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.

“England is obviously at the top of the heap in the world of Women’s Rugby at the moment, with a fully professional women’s system that is the envy of most other Rugby-playing nations. Jo has been heavily involved in this system – in the early days as a player, and then as a coach and Director of Rugby as the English system developed into that powerhouse.

“We have been impressed by Jo’s thinking on the game, her attention to detail, and her plans to build a strong high-performance culture – which she has experience doing; many of the players she coached in the England U20s are now the players that are so influential in the senior team.

“Jo is a highly sought-after coach, and I am confident that she is the right person to lead the development of the Wallaroos program as we look towards the next World Cup in England in 2025.”

Will the schedules allow for the women from the 7s team to also participate in the 15s team?

The indication during Dubai commentary was they would "be available" after Paris.
Several would be too slight for the XV's, but there are certainly some strong contendors.

'It's exciting': New coach Yapp motivated by historic Wallaroos potential

Mon, Feb 19, 2024, 10:08 AM
Nathan Williamson

New Wallaroos coach Jo Yapp is excited by the potential of the side as she becomes the first female to coach the national side.

Yapp was unveiled as coach on Monday after being appointed to the role in December.

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The former English international is the first full-time Wallaroos coach, with further funding announced for the program on Friday.

With more players than ever on improved, multi-year deals, it reflects the growth of a side brimming with confidence heading into 2024.

"I’m just massively excited about the role…I feel privileged to be working with such an amazing group of athletes and looking forward to that first camp when I can get them in together," Yapp said.

"All the things that have been put in place to really deliver the women’s sport over here is something that I thought was amazing to be involved in.

"It’s the next step for me in terms of going into international sport and that opportunity with a side that is so forward-thinking at the moment is massive. They’ve done so well for so long despite not having a huge amount of resources so now to see how they can keep on when they’ve got that support is really exciting.”

The Wallaroos' 2023 campaign was one of, if not, the most impressive seasons in their history.

Wins over France, the USA, Wales and Fijiana have the side ranked fifth in the world behind England, New Zealand, Canada and the French.

They have never been ranked higher than third, with Yapp eager to prove their third-place finish in WXV 1 was no fluke.

“The initial vision is to be a top four side and to close the gap on the likes of England and New Zealand and to be a top four team consistently," she outlined.

“Those top teams are ahead of us in terms of how long those players have been full time but these athletes have been working really hard and been really professional before in terms of their training standards

“It’s now just pushing our high-performance side of things and those elite behaviours to try and ensure we’re driving the standards not just when they’re in camp with us but in Super W as well. It’s a constant we need to push...There’s athletes who are desperate to do well, and move to program forward. They’ve asked for this support and resources and they’re ready to get started.

“I just want them to have that performance mindset and they want that support and to be challenged, really trying to push their own standards."

Yapp is the lone female head coach of an Australian senior national team in a major football code.

The 44-year-old understands the position she is in as a trailblazer, rising through the ranks at Worcester before heading down under.

“For me, the best coach is the best coach whether that’s male or female but I also understand that I have got a role in terms of being a role model and seeing that there is opportunities for other coaches," she adds.

“To come forward and coach at an international level and within Australia itself and seeing that as a role model.”

https://www.rugby.com.au/news/its-ex...ential-2024219


The Wallaroos' new coach is a trailblazer in Australian sport - but she doesn't want to be known as that

Christy Doran
Editor, The Roar

Jo Yapp hasn’t leapt into the Wallaroos head coaching role trying to be a trailblazer, but if she can change the way female coaches are perceived by lifting the profile of the sport at the same time, the former England captain is more than happy to play her part.

“I don’t really think of it from that perspective,” Yapp told reporters in Sydney on Monday.

“For me, the best coach is the best coach whether that’s male or female,” Yapp said.

“But I also understand that I have got a role in terms of being a role model and seeing that there are opportunities for other coaches to come forward and to coach at an international level and also within Australia itself.

“More people can see that it’s the same as playing, in terms of being able to go, ‘right, that female was able to break through’ because I think quite often as females, we undersell ourselves.

“We’ll see a job and just think, ‘Oh, maybe I haven’t got the experience for that’.

“But actually you have got the same level of experience.

“So recognising that and actually giving people an opportunity is really important.

“Later, down the line, you’ll probably see more international (female) coaches because they’re starting to get those opportunities.”

More pressing for Yapp is to get Australian women’s rugby up to speed.

While Australia’s women’s sevens program has largely been the envy of the world, the 15s program has been left alone. Until now.

Not only did Rugby Australia’s boss Phil Waugh appoint former Olympic rower turned high performance guru Jaime Fernandez to the role last August, the governing body also chose to appoint a full-time Wallaroos coach for the first time after having their heads buried in the sand for too long.

“I think there’s been a shift by World Rugby and by other nations to go deeper into 15-a-side and we’ve probably been a little bit slow in catching up to that.” Waugh admitted. “We’re certainly playing catch up to England, France and New Zealand.

“If we want to go deep into ’29 [the home women’s Rugby World Cup], you’ve got to invest now otherwise it’ll be too late and even now we’re certainly up against it for time to ensure that we continue to invest which is why the appointment of Jo full-time leading the program and that investment in our athletes to give them the appropriate resources to go hopefully go deep in ’29.”

Even before the recent investment, the Wallaroos program was showing promising signs.

The women in gold pushed the Black Ferns in their World Cup opener in 2022, before finishing last year’s Test calendar with consecutive wins over France and Wales.

It’s partly why Yapp opted to jump at the chance to take over from Jay Tregonning.

“It’s kind of the next step for me in terms of going into international sport,” Yapp, the 70-Test England halfback, said.

“That opportunity with a side that is so forward-thinking at the moment was just a massive opportunity.

“The Wallaroos have done so well for so long despite not having a huge amount of resources, so now to see how they can kick on when they’ve got that support is really exciting.”

Yapp, who captained England to the 2006 World Cup final, has set her sights on leading the Wallaroos into the top four and says there are two areas – strength and conditioning, and game understanding – she’s identified the side can make huge strides.

“Those top teams are ahead of us in terms of how long those players have been full time,” she said.

“The other nations like France, New Zealand, England, they’ve got a huge history in terms of the players starting at a young age into the game of fifteens and actually, in the Wallaroos squad, some of the players come a little bit later from other areas. So there’s a good piece of work that we can do on that game understanding.”

If the Wallaroos can turn the corner, the crowds coming out of England suggest rugby in Australia could turn a corner.

Indeed, it was less than a year ago 60,000 fans turned up to watch England’s Red Roses take on Ireland at Twickenham.

Yapp said investing in the sport and allowing people to watch it, as well as taking the national side across the country in England, was important in seeing the popularity rise.

“The premiership was really big for that in terms of every weekend now there’s like a game streamed on TV, so that kind of helped to grow the audience over there,” she said.

“But also obviously the success that they’ve had is has helped with that. This has been like a long progress.

“They also went out to a lot of other areas of the country. With the World Cup, it’s all in different parts. So in terms of then trying to grow the crowds, there was a game hosted at Worcester, so the community really pushed that there. Then there was a game at Northampton and the community really pushed that there and, if you can get those crowds to come to Twickenham, then you get 60,000.”

Yapp said in due time she would address her bosses about the need to expand Super W.

“I think that’s one of the things that we need to look at,” she said.

The 44-year-old was at home when the phone went with the news RA wanted her as their next Wallaroos coach.

With her husband on board, next on the agenda was speaking to her 12-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son.

Neither needed much convincing, but for Yapp, who had developed a fine reputation coaching over the previous decade at both the international level and English Premiership, it was imperative they were on board.

“It had been a really emotional time,” Yapp later told The Roar.

“The Worcester thing hurt because it was my club as a player as well as a coach. I played all my rugby there.

“The emotions were all over the place. From us as a family perspective, it’s like, ‘wow, this is amazing.’ My kids love their rugby, so they were super proud. It was that real excitement, but also this is quite something as well. It’s kind of just trying to make things as simple for them, so I can do the role.

“Once I’m in I’m all in and I need their support, because they’re the most important to me, so having their backing was massive.”

Yapp said creating a family environment at the Wallaroos was important for her.

“Both [of my children] were massively involved with me at Worcester,” she said.

“They loved being around the players, loved being around those role models, so they were fully into that and to be able to bring them out and experience it, I can’t wait for them to meet the players.

“I think that’s an important part of it in terms of when you’re going into such a tough couple of years with time away, being able to connect families within the Wallabies and staff is important because you need that support.”

So what would she say to other parents and young boys and girls thinking about playing rugby?

“I love it for the camaraderie,” Yapp said.

“We moved from Exeter to home, which is Clee Hill, my husband and I started the mini rugby club there to save us from travelling and we grew it and now we have loads of volunteers. It was a massive opportunity for them to meet people and engage people.

“The camaraderie you get from rugby and seeing them grow in confidence, as well as all the physical benefits, are great.”

https://www.theroar.com.au/2024/02/1...known-as-that/