They may have made a red-hot start to their World Cup title defence but Australia are insisting there is plenty more to come.
The Jillaroos take on Canada in their final pool match at Southern Cross Group Stadium on Wednesday having scored dominant victories over the Cook Islands (58-4) and England (38-0) to start the tournament.
With a likely final against New Zealand on the horizon, Australia have flexed their muscles early on despite coach Brad Donald making the most of the depth of his squad and resting a number of key players.
And while they have scored an impressive 96 points and conceded a solitary try to the Moana in their first match, Donald said there was still plenty of room for improvement.
“We know we can improve. Our attack was quite clunky at times there [against England],” he said.
“While ever we keep playing and winning like that we are just putting a bigger target on our back [but] … it’ll raise the standard of the game across the board internationally. So we’re pretty excited, if we set the bar high enough then we’re going to raise the bar for the whole women’s game across the world.”
Australian captain Renae Kunst agreed.
“Probably the most exciting thing is we all walked off there knowing we could certainly give a lot more in attack. And that’s really exciting and makes us really proud to know that whilst it was a bigger scoreline we’ve still got a lot more room for improvement,” she said.
There was more positive news for Australia, with centre Isabelle Kelly found to have no case to answer by the match review committee after a biting allegation in the win over England. Kelly was placed on report after England forward Chantelle Crowl made the allegation near the end of the first half on Sunday.
If their opening two results weren’t enough to get the rest of the competition nervous, then the fact the Jillaroos are yet to unleash superstar fullback Sam Bremner surely must.
Donald said Bremner was back to “95 per cent” fitness after suffering a leg injury but, with the form of Nakia Davis-Welsh, Bremner would not be rushed back.
“We’re just making sure we’re not bringing anybody back when we don’t need to,” Donald said.
“Sammy is pretty good but we just want to make sure she is 100 per cent because she’s a game breaker. We haven’t lost anything with Nakia playing, she’s been outstanding. She’s a superstar in the making that kid and I think the last two games have just shown how good she is.
“We’ve got some depth and everyone knows how good Sammy Bremner is. It’s not a bad card to keep in our pocket and we’ll be able to pull it out at some stage when she’s ready.”