In her nine Test Match caps for the Wallaroos Panuara’s Grace Hamilton has never had the honour of playing on Australian soil, her appearances instead coming in New Zealand in 2016 and then Ireland at last year’s Rugby World Cup.
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But with Tuesday’s huge announcement the women’s national side will face its Kiwi counterparts on August 18 before the Wallabies’ opening Bledisloe Cup clash with the All Blacks, at ANZ Stadium, she looks all but assured of running out in front of a home crowd for the very first time.
Granted, Hamilton still has to earn a spot in the Wallaroos’ final squad but considering her standing as one of, if not the best back-rowers in the country after an outstanding Super W campaign, the 26-year-old should be all but guaranteed a spot.
“I’ve never played on home soil in the Wallaroos jersey. To be on home soil with a home crowd [behind us]… it’ll be a massive moment for all of us,” Hamilton beamed, she featured in 2016’s double-header at New Zealand’s Eden Park.
”For the Wallaroos it’s massive, we’ve never played on home soil in a double header. It shows how much support we’ve got for women’s rugby now and how far we’ve come. We’re getting more exposure now so people will actually want to support us in the future.
“It’s a privilege to get this opportunity.”
That privilege has been a long time coming too, the Wallaroos’ last Test on home soil was a decade ago, a six-point loss to New Zealand.
August’s blockbuster will also be the Wallaroos’ 50th Test Match, making the occasion a little bit more special too. To put that in some sort of context England’s most-capped player of all-time, Rochelle Clark, has played more than double that on her own, boasting 137 international caps.
While the Wallaroos haven’t enjoyed much success against the Black Ferns recently – New Zealand won their two Tests in 2016 67-3 and 29-2 – Hamilton is certain her side will rise to the challenge in August, she says the continued increase in professionalism in the women’s game has made sure of that.
“It’ll be tough, the Black Ferns are the best in the world. But you want to beat the best to be the best,” she told rugby.com.au.
“We’ve got a lot of girls we need to build [ahead of] that 2021 World Cup, there’s building blocks (and) you can see from the Super W how much better every team got, how much better every individual got.
Moving forward, we just want to (continue) getting better and I think if every girl buys into that process, yeah, I think we’ll get better and we’ll get stronger.
“Playing at that higher level coming into a Test Match is obviously going to be better for us and now we’ve got training with identified girls … with some good coaches around us we can definitely move forward, with a better performance against New Zealand.
“Looking forward we’ve got a really good group of girls that we can develop further, looking [toward] the 2021 World Cup we’re only going to get better.”
The Wallaroos face the Black Ferns from 5.30pm on Saturday, August 18. They’ll feature in a second double-header the week after at Eden Park as well.
Matt Findlay
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
