The Wallaroos’ preparations ahead of next year’s World Cup in England have received a boost, with nine of Australia’s sevens stars putting up their hands to feature in the upcoming Super Rugby Women’s tournament in a bid to earn selection.

Headlined by 2016 Olympic gold medallist Charlotte Caslick, the former captain will be joined by new skipper Isabella Nasser, Maddison and Taegan Levi, as well as Kahli Henwood at the Queensland Reds.

Elsewhere, Sariah Paki will join the NSW Waratahs, while Demi Hayes, Tia Hinds and Bienne Terita will head to Andy Friend’s ACT Brumbies side.

Although the heavy contingent of sevens stars won’t feature in the competition’s entirety, it’s hoped that they will feature in at least two matches in March between the Vancouver and Hong Kong Sevens tournaments.

Nine Australian sevens stars will play in next year’s Super Rugby Women’s competition in a bid to feature at the 2025 women’s World Cup. Photo: Nooroa Takairangi

The movement across programs comes after months of planning.

“After [women’s sevens coach] Tim [Walsh] and I met collectively with players from our 7s program, we were really pleased how many have put their hands up,” Wallaroos coach Jo Yapp said.

“Super Rugby Women’s will offer invaluable game time and experience for each player.

“It is an immense honour to pull on the Wallaroos jersey and we need to ensure that all players are given the opportunity to prove themselves whilst keeping our team values at the heart of everything we do.”

Jaime Fernandez, Rugby Australia’s general manager of women’s high performance, said the governing body hoped it was just the start of greater integration between the two programs.

“The ability to play multiple formats of the game is a unique and special opportunity, as is representing one’s country in some of the biggest sporting events in the world – the Olympic Games and a Rugby World Cup,” Fernandez said.

“Working to the respective schedules and with a view to increasing player depth and strengthening our talent pool, we aim to have the best players available and competing at major events annually.

“With the alignment of women’s rugby in a more formal sense, we are moving into a new and exciting era for the sport in Australia as we prepare for the largest Women’s Rugby World Cup in history.”

Jo Yapp will have more options than ever before, with nine of Australia’s sevens stars putting their hats in the ring ahead of next year’s women’s World Cup in England. (Photo by Albert Perez/Getty Images)

Caslick, who has been the face of women’s rugby in Australia for the past decade, said she was excited to get the chance to play.

“I’ve always looked at playing 15s but it’s never really aligned until now,” she said. “I’m really excited to challenge myself and have new experiences. I think the opportunity to represent Queensland is something I’m really looking forward to.

“We all watched the men’s rugby World Cup last year, and I was there, and that experience definitely made me super keen to play. And BB [Terita] and Sharni [Smale] played at the last World Cup and they told us all about it and that inspired a lot of us to play. It was an easy option for a lot of us. And having a home World Cup in five years is something that should be on all of the girls’ radar, so this one would give them experience heading into that.”

Although it’s not unique that Australia’s sevens specialists have featured in World Cups, never in the game’s history has there been such a strong appetite to feature in the XV-a-side game.

But after 58,498 fans showed up to watch England play France at Twickenham last year, the rise of women’s rugby is obvious.

Sevens has played its part.

Indeed, USA star Ilona Maher not only powered her nation to Olympic bronze against Australia earlier this year, she went from someone having a couple of hundred thousand fans to 4.7 million followers on Instagram.

In doing so, she helped put women’s rugby on the map.

Her arrival at Bristol in recent days is testament to that, with the Bears moving venues to Ashton Gate after being inundated with ticket requests.

The rising wave of women’s rugby in England hasn’t happened overnight, but it’s come after the national side enjoyed huge success that

Indeed, the Red Roses won 30 straight Tests before going down in a World Cup final epic against the Blacks Ferns at Eden Park in front of 42,000 fans.

New Zealand and England line up for the national anthems ahead of the 2022 Rugby World Cup final at Eden Park on November 12, 2022 in Auckland. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins – World Rugby via Getty Images)

The Black Ferns side was led by masterful All Blacks coach Wayne Smith, who was boosted by sevens stars Sarah Hirini, as well as physical backs Portia Woodman-Wickliffe and Stacey Waaka, for the campaign in New Zealand.

Now Yapp will hope the contingent of players putting their hands up in sevens can have the same impact.

Not all of them are guaranteed to feature in England next August, especially given most of them are in the backs – the Wallaroos’ biggest strength.

With Desiree Miller and Maya Stewart on the wings, Yapp already has two quality finishers at her disposal.

But with Maddison Levi quickly on her way to breaking every trycoring record in sevens history, it’s likely that Yapp will have no other option to pick the towering winger.

It’s expected that Caslick will feature at fullback for the Reds, while Hinds, the gifted playmaker who is usually very accurate from the boot, is believed to be firmly in Yapp’s sights as a No.10.

Terita previously scored twice on debut for the Wallaroos and is another potent option.

Naser, meanwhile, will be a tempting option at inside centre with her direct play suited to the physical nature of women’s XVs.

The Wallaroos have drawn a tough pool alongside England, USA and Samoa.