The Western Force’s 2024 Buildcorp Super Rugby Women’s campaign ended with a semi-final defeat to the Fijian Drua but there were a lot of achievements across the season.
Force TV caught up with head coach Dylan Parsons to reflect on the ground-breaking campaign.
The mantra this Super W season was to “be the first”, and the side achieved their first-ever win over Reds, first-ever winning record and first-ever finals campaign. Can you reflect on the season gone?
“When you do reflect it is something you can be proud of. Really proud of the group and the girls using that mantra and trying to drive a bit of a storyline. It was something that was pretty important to us, to create something that was a bit more meaningful.
To have some of those results, they weren’t focused goals, but we just knew anything to do with “the first” was something we were striving for. To tick quite a few of them off that list sets us up really well for the future. Some really great memories for the playing group.”
The semi-final in Fiji was a sellout and amazing atmosphere and you just fell short. What did you make of the game?
“It was an awesome experience for the plying group, the staff, everyone involved. Only the internationals, the Wallaroos, have experienced a crowd like that.
“To have that, do it in a semi-final, away from home as well, it’s something we’ll be able to draw upon in the future. That’s Super Rugby, that’s what the game should be.
“To see how passionate the Fijian row dan dhow much they love their rugby, they also love to support any other rugby team that comes into their country as well. We felt that. Even though they were all cheering for the Drua, we drove a lot of energy.”
Can you talk about some of the lessons from the season?
“It was probably just around the key moments. Key moments in games can really influence the result. I felt like we grew a lot in that area from the start of the season up until the semi-final. When you’ve got dangerous players like the Drua do, they don’t need many opportunities to take it.
When it comes down to those tight games, momentum is key. Turning that momentum into points and executing when you do have your chances, that’s finals rugby. Some really good lessons around that. I’m proud of the girls on how much they’ve grown.”
Talk to us about the gains made on a collective level?
“Learning how to be a professional. Starting out a new group, we had a new squad. It’s still our core group from last year. We had to do a lot of work to ensure the group understand who the Western Force were, what we’re about and what we’re going to stand for moving forward. We had to put a lot of work into that. We had a lot of gains in that space.”
“A big gain is around our tactical knowledge as well, trying to understand those moments in games and that they have to make those decisions when it matters, instead of being coaches giving messages all the time.
“I felt like we’ve grown a lot in that space. that’s only going to help players that go off to international honours and other teams going forward. They’re smarter rugby players from leaving this program. They’re key areas we feel we’ve been able to move forward and we’ll keep developing moving forward.”
Can you talk about some of the individual gains across the season?
“I think some of the ones that stand out are Sammy Wood. For such a young player who had an injury interrupted season prior to this one. She really stepped up and has grown a lot. She’s an old soul, with a mature head on her shoulders. To see her get the gametime and get the performance she’s worked really hard for was great to see.
“There’s some other ones like Hera-Barb, who’s been a local, who’s been working really hard behind the scenes of Kalamunda over the years. She’s stuck loyal to the Western Force. She had a big year.
“I’d say having Sara Cline here, the Canadian international, really pushing each other to make each other better, it helped both their games. To see Sara selected into the Canadian squad for the Pac Four series coming up, that’s another thing we want to do in this program. If anyone comes into this program with international ambitions, we want to be able to try support that and develop that. When they get that recognition, it’s something we can be proud of as well.”
Over the next 9-10 months with the additional resources made available to the women’s program, what’s the next phase of the program look like?
“That’s the really exciting part. Within competition mode, it can be quite intense. You’ve got a lot of other moving parts you’re trying to do with, around travel, preview, review, opposition, injury management and still trying to get development within the group. To take away the pressure of results on the weekend and just focus on our playing group individually and what they need, is going to be something in 2025, the growth they’ll get through this off-season period is going to set us up going forward.
“It’s off-season from a Western Force point of view, but not from club rugby. A lot of our work is developing them to keep getting better for club or going for their international rep honours in camps or different competition. So that’s our big focus now, the individual development and supporting those needs to make sure wherever they go, they’re going to be ready.”
So a lot of the group are still coming to Force HQ weekly and then play for their club?
“All our local girls and any other girls who’ve relocated to this program, everything is done at HQ and then off to club for training in those evenings and getting prepared for club rugby games on the weekend.”
The long-term vision is growth and ultimately preparing them for the 2025 Super W season?
“That’s that Kaizen mentality we have, with continuous improvement. You can only get consistency over an extended period of time. We’ll keep working on all that stuff behind the scenes to keep getting better. That’ll help set us up for a successful 2025 season.”
