Australia’s 30-10 Win Leaves the Hard Part for October

Australia beat Scotland 30-10 at Hive Stadium on Saturday, 26 September, after trailing 10-5 at half-time, and snapped a six-match losing streak with three tries in seven minutes. The Wallaroos still have to prove that burst lasts 80 minutes, because the same Scotland side comes to Sydney and Canberra in October.

Desiree Miller, Samantha Wood, Brianna Hoy and Faitala Moleka scored the tries. Wood added two conversions and two penalties. Evie Gallagher’s close-range try and Helen Nelson’s boot were all Scotland could hold onto once the second half opened up.

Seven Minutes at Hive Stadium Flip a 10-5 Deficit

Scotland had the wind in the first half and used it. Gallagher, who had already scored twice against New Zealand a week earlier, finished another close-range drive in the 15th minute, and Nelson converted. Australia could not break a tight defence until the 35th minute, when Waiaria Ellis floated a long pass to Georgina Friedrichs and Miller walked in at the left corner. Nelson then kicked a penalty, and the hosts went to the break 10-5 up in front of 3,191 at Hive Stadium.

Captain Siokapesi Palu Sekona thought she had crashed over right after the restart. Referee Aurélie Groizeleau chopped it off for crossing. The next Australian raid stayed on the right side of the law. A rolling maul was stopped a metre short, Gallagher was sent for 10 minutes for bringing it down, and Wood darted over for the lead. Wood’s 15-point haul from that try, two conversions and two penalties ran the rest of the afternoon.

THE SEVEN-MINUTE BURST

1. 50th minute: Wood snipes from the maul, converts, and Gallagher goes to the sin bin.
2. Hoy’s maiden Test try: The loosehead prop sells a dummy and ploughs over with Scotland down to 14.
3. 57th minute: Miller breaks from the kick-off and Moleka hits the crash line for 24-10.

Two Wood penalties after the hour, kicked as the scrum took over in worsening weather, closed it at 30-10. Australia scored 25 unanswered points in the second half. Scotland did not add another.

W in Edinburgh 💥

Thanks for a great match, @Scotlandteam 🤝 pic.twitter.com/BnAvMZwAZe

— Wallaroos (@WallaroosRugby) September 26, 2026

The official account called it a W in Edinburgh and left it there. The tape shows a tighter story. Australia’s lineout still leaked, and the three-try burst arrived only after Gallagher was off. Last week in Aix-en-Provence they had a French red card and still lost 26-29. This time they cashed the extra player.

Australia’s First Half Problem Followed Them to Edinburgh

The European leg of the inaugural WXV Global Series was billed as a measure against the top of the women’s game. England put 48 points on them in Salford on 13 September. France, even with cards flying, held them off 29-26 a week later after Australia had led at the break. Edinburgh was the first time in three Tests they closed.

THE WALLAROOS’ EUROPEAN WXV RESULTS

Those three games add up to 71 points scored and 87 conceded, which is why Australia sit on four points from three matches in the series table. The win over Scotland was also the first Test victory since a 33-15 result against Fiji in Canberra on 27 March. In between sat losses to Canada, the United States, New Zealand twice, England and France.

Director of Women’s High Performance Tim Walsh had said before the Test that the side had improved, on the numbers, through the previous three matches. Assistant Mike Ruthven kept the same modest line after the whistle.

I’m really pleased to finish off what’s been a really tough campaign for us. The girls have certainly been progressing in our performance week to week, so it’s a really pleasing way to finish.

Mike Ruthven, Wallaroos assistant coach, post-match

Progress is the honest word. A bright first half against England died in the second. A half-time lead against France died in the last quarter. Against Scotland they reversed the shape, and still needed a yellow card to light the fuse. Friedrichs and Pia Tapsell held the first 50 minutes together while the lineout wobbled. Wood, Moleka and Miller then ran at 14 players. That is a win. It is not yet an 80-minute Test against a full side.

Leonard Walks Out First, Then Miller Hits 100 Points

Michaela Leonard led both teams out for her 50th Test, the first Wallaroo to get there. The 31-year-old lock, who became the most-capped Australian woman in April, has missed only two internationals since her debut against Japan in 2019 and had already played 49 of the 102 Wallaroos Tests staged since 1994. The cap arrived on a night the pack had to wait until the second half to control the maul.

Miller’s try made her the first player to reach 100 Test points for the team. She went into the match four points short. The 24-year-old wing’s finish was her 19th try in gold, and she was not done. From the restart after Hoy’s score she tore up the left touchline, broke tackles from her own 22, and put Moleka over.

WHAT MILLER AND WOOD DID IN EDINBURGH

• Miller’s day: 19th Test try, 100 Test points, 90 metres, four tackle busts and two line breaks.
• Wood’s day: a try, two conversions from four shots, two penalties from two, 15 points.
• The turnover count: Australia won eight, Scotland three, after a first quarter spent defending their own 22.
• Hoy’s first: a maiden Test try from loosehead, dummy and all, with Gallagher still in the bin.

Moleka, named player of the match, also landed a 50-22 that set up one of Wood’s penalties. She has settled at inside centre after time at fly-half, and the kicking game sat with her as the weather closed in. Palu Sekona’s half-time talk, Moleka later said, was the other switch. Scotland had been “pumping us at the rucks,” and the captain asked for a different night.

A Third Straight Loss and a Long Flight South

Scotland went into the match one place above Australia, eighth to ninth on 74.40 points to 74.03. World Rugby had framed the home block as a stretch assignment for interim coach Dave Butcher after a fifth-place Women’s Six Nations. Hive Stadium did not give him a first series win.

SCOTLAND’S SEPTEMBER AT THE HIVE

• 12 September: Canada 64, Scotland 26, with Gallagher among the try-scorers in a 10-try defeat.
• 19 September: New Zealand 66, Scotland 14, Gallagher twice, then 21 points conceded in a seven-minute spell after half-time.
• 26 September: Australia 30, Scotland 10, Gallagher again from close range, then another second-half collapse.

The series table now reads played three, won none, 50 points scored, 160 conceded. Captain Rachel Malcolm’s lineout still functioned. Meryl Smith and Holland Bogan carried hard in that first half. Scotland even turned down an early shot at three points to keep hammering the Australian line, then knocked the ball on. They had the wind, they had the lead, and they still left with a third straight loss.

The shape is getting familiar. Gallagher scores from a couple of metres. The restart after half-time is where the visitors run away. New Zealand did it in seven minutes. Australia did it in seven minutes with a yellow card to help. Butcher now takes that tape on a long flight to a country where his side has never played a Test.

Five Meetings, Five Wins, and a First in Edinburgh

Until Saturday the Wallaroos and Scotland had met four times since 1998, all of them wins for Australia, none of them in Scotland or in Australia. The most recent was the 2024 WXV 2 final in Cape Town, which Australia won to take the title. Edinburgh was the first Test between them on Scottish soil. The return legs will be the first on Australian soil.

That 5-0 record is real and thin at the same time. Four of the five were played on neutral ground or in South Africa. The one in Edinburgh required a comeback. Scotland already know they can lead this Wallaroos side at the break, and they already know the cost of a sloppy maul defence once the tempo rises. Australia know the opposite: they can blow a game open in seven minutes, and they still have not shown they can start that way.

Caitlyn Halse’s first-half injury stoppage was a reminder that the tour has been attritional. Hera-Barb Malcolm Heke (knee) and Allana Sikimeti (back) never made the 23. Martha Fua was finally in line for her first appearance of the trip. The October window is a chance to get bodies back as much as it is a chance to finish the series.

Accor Stadium Gets the Series Australia Now Need

The Wallaroos listed the next date as Saturday, 17 October, 12:00pm AEDT, at Accor Stadium in Sydney, live on Channel 9 and Stan Sport. Six days later they finish the international year at GIO Stadium in Canberra, 7:30pm AEDT on 23 October. Those Tests in Sydney and Canberra sit 21 days after Edinburgh.

Moleka, asked about the trip home, did not dress the second half up as a finished product. She treated it as tape they can take with them.

I’m excited. Looking back on that second half, I think the girls can really take that and use that as confidence as we go back home.

Faitala Moleka, player of the match, after the Test

She also said Scotland would bring physicality and game-driving, and that Australia had the skill set to answer it. That is the October bet in one sentence. Hive Stadium gave the Wallaroos a win, two records, and a second-half burst they had been chasing since Salford. It also gave Scotland a half-time lead to remember and a three-week wait to see whether 15 of them can live with that tempo on the other side of the world.