'Many more of those moments':Jillaroos out to inspire on ultimate stage

Jillaroos stars believe the opportunity to showcase more moments like Julia Robinson’s “Superwoman” try to a wider audience during Rugby League World Cup 2026 will elevate the women’s game to another level.

Robinson’s try during last year’s Pacific Championships, in which she soared through the air to catch a Jesse Southwell kick and score against Samoa, went viral after being shared on social media by the likes of Matildas captain Sam Kerr.

However, the decision to schedule the Jillaroos as the headline act in double-headers at CommBank Stadium on October 16 and Perth’s HBF Park on October 24 will expose the skills of the best athletes in women’s contact sport to new fans.

“I think being on primetime TV on Friday and Saturday night, and playing in different parts of Australia as well, we’ll get to tap into different audiences for whom rugby league isn't traditionally the main sport,” Tiana Penitani Gray said.

“To be able to take the game nationwide and take it to a new audience, but also to show the best of our product in primetime, is such an exciting opportunity for us.

“We are already so elite in the product that we have, but I think it's going to entice so many more people to want to play the game, to want to watch the game, to want to be supporters of the game, as well as different brands to want to work with the game.

That’s the byproduct of having such an amazing product like the World Cup to showcase our athletes, not just from Australia but other nations too.”

The last time the World Cup was staged in Australia in 2017, the women’s tournament was played in its entirety at Cronulla and featured six teams playing triple-headers every third day.

For many it was the first time they had seen women’s rugby league and the establishment of the NRLW was fast-tracked to start in 2018 due to the success of the World Cup.

"I remember watching the World Cup in 2017 and just thinking how amazing it was that women were playing footy,” Penitani Gray said.

“As a little girl I grew up watching my dad play and my uncles play but I had never actually seen women play, so I never thought it was a sport girls could play as an adult.

“That 2017 World Cup kickstarted a whole bunch of girls and women playing rugby league again, and having now been a part of that growth of our game for nearly 10 years I think that's just going to be tenfold after this 2026 World Cup.”

The Sharks captain, who made her Test debut in 2019, has been a mainstay of the Australian team since 2024 and she was on the field when Robinson scored her wonder try against Fetu Samoa – the Jillaroos first up World Cup opponent.

“It was a pinpoint precision kick and the finish was superb, but the ripple effect in the aftermath of that was something that I don't think any of us expected; seeing high profile athletes from around the world like Sam Kerr posting on her story and just being in awe of a moment like that,” Penitani Gray said.

“It's just really nice to see players in our game get their flowers, like they deserve, because we work so hard to do what we do and to be the best at what we do.

“There's just so many moments like that that the playing group are capable of, so to be front and centre in the spotlight for this World Cup, I think there's going to be so many more of those moments.”