Wallaroos climb to seventh in world rankings after 30-10 demolition of Scotland in Edinburgh

The Wallaroos moved to seventh in the World Rugby rankings after defeating Scotland 30-10 at Hive Stadium in Edinburgh during the WXV Global Series, rising two places on the back of a dominant second-half display.

The victory was marked by two significant individual milestones. Michaela Leonard became the first player to earn 50 caps for the Wallaroos, while Desiree Miller’s try made her the first player to reach 100 Test points for the side. Faitala Moleka was named player of the match for her performance throughout.

Assistant coach Michael Ruthven was encouraged by the team’s trajectory across the campaign. “Really pleased to finish off what’s been a really tough campaign for us,” he said. “The girls have certainly been progressing in our performance week to week, so it’s a really pleasing way to finish. We certainly had to work hard for it, but I thought the girls really increased the tempo in the second half and were able to score some tries.”

The Wallaroos were led by Director of Women’s High Performance Tim Walsh and a number of interim coaches during the series, with Sione Fukofuka set to take over as head coach in January.

The result reshuffled several positions in the rankings. Scotland dropped to ninth, while Italy — beaten by South Africa on Saturday — slipped one place to eighth. Wales’s defeat to the USA Women’s Eagles in Cardiff, where Freda Tafuna scored a hat-trick at the Arms Park, and Japan’s seven-point loss to Ireland in Galway allowed Japan’s Sakura Fifteen to overtake Wales into 11th place.

Elsewhere, Samoa’s 34-17 win over Hong Kong China in their final WXV Global Series Challenger 2026 fixture lifted the Pacific Islanders two places to 15th, pushing the Netherlands down to 16th and Hong Kong China to 17th.