Wallaroos breakout star Caitlyn Halse is taking in her remarkable start to World Cup life as the fullback reflects on her meteoric rise.
Halse has emerged as the breakout star of the 2025 Rugby World Cup after a pair of brilliant performances at the back, eager to continue the run against hosts England on Sunday (AEST).
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The Waratahs wunderkind, aptly nicknamed ‘Kid’, has been directly involved in more tries than any other player at this year’s Rugby World Cup (seven) while also leading the competition.
“I grew up wanting to play on an international stage [like this],” Halse told reporters.
“I think I've never played in front of so many people before and I think it's meant to be an almost sold out crowd of like 30,000 people [this week against England] so I think just trying to feed off the crowd's energy and get myself pumped up for that game
To put in perspective what Halse has done, when co-captain Emily Chancellor was 18, Rugby wasn’t even a fever dream, let alone producing what teammate Halse has at this Rugby World Cup.
The flanker was still three years away from playing her first game of Rugby, first picking up the ball when she at Uni.
“I've loved watching the way she's grown over the last three years at Waratahs from a kid with a hell of a lot of talent but not a lot of self-belief, move into a player who is backing herself, executing and enjoying it,” the flanker explained.
“The confidence that she's got over the last two years playing in the gold jersey is just unreal to see the way she truly believes in what she's doing. She's got the good communication, she's got a great skill set, but she's also a really natural footy player.
“I remember watching her last year at Waratahs, she'd seen a banana kick that one of the boys had done in Super Rugby and she just picked up the ball at training and was just practising it like for five minutes before the session had happened and then in the session she just pulled out this epic end over end ball that swung off the field.
“There's no fear of failure there, there's this natural ability which I wish I had and wish I was born 20 years later and had the ability that she does because she is a raw talent that is also honing in on the skill and picking the moments to throw those long passes to carry or to kick it in behind and find those 50-22s.”
Halse credits her teammates for guiding her through the process and keeping her grounded as the spotlight and waves of attention start to pour in for the teenager.
“I try not to think about the pressure of the game too much, I just try and go out the field and do what I do, but I think a couple of girls in the group like to keep me humble, such as Maya [Stewart] and ‘Freddie’ [Georgina Friedrichs],” she said and smiled.
“They've been there since the start. I think we played together for about three years so I think they've both taken me under their wing, definitely on and off the field.
"I think they've worked a lot with me around my professionalism and then the mental side of the game off and on the field, just queuing me up on some skills and more like around the queues on the field, like when to throw certain passes and reading defensive queues.”
The fullback is always looking to get better and improve her craft as she slowly rises up the ranks as one of the best in the world, with All Blacks great Christan Cullen an idol - even if he retired a year after she was born.
“I think I've still got a lot to work on, I would probably say speed work, and then I know my kicking can still get better. It's good but I think there's always things that I can improve on, whether it's my follow through or the technique in which I kick the ball,” Halse added.
