With just under a year until the women's Rugby World Cup in England, Australia is racing against the clock to turn themselves from a middle of the pack squad to world beaters.
Claiming just one victory over Fiji since highly rated coach Jo Yapp took over the side earlier this year, the Wallaroos have been soundly beaten by Canada, humiliated twice by the Black Ferns, while they were at the hands of their own demise against the USA. Five matches, four losses, it's hardly the record you'd like to see with a new coach at the helm and a World Cup edging ever closer.
With the defeats also comes relegation to WV2 which will now see Australia play Wales, South Africa and Scotland, instead of two of the world's best in England and France. A mini tour of the UK beforehand also has them lining up against Ireland and a second clash with Wales in what becomes a six-week tour replicating what they face at the World Cup in 12 months' time.
In total the Wallaroos will have taken to the pitch 10 times in 2024, one of their busiest calendar year's to date and the perfect lead in to what will be the biggest women's World Cup ever with an expanded 16-team format.
With lofty goals of becoming a mainstay top four nation it means Yapp and her Wallaroos must break into the semifinals, a position they haven't found themselves in since 2010, and if they're to put themselves on that path they must start winning now, making the next six weeks one of the most important under Yapp to date.
"It's really important," Yapp said about the upcoming tour. "Just the opportunity to play different opposition and to see where we're at."
"We've obviously played New Zealand a lot and that's tough because we know we're behind them at the moment. They've obviously been full time for a lot longer, but for us to sort of pit ourselves now against Ireland and Wales and Scotland and teams like that, it gives us a real indicator of where we're at and it gives us an opportunity to play different opposition who have different styles of play, which is what we're going to face at the World Cup.
"We're going to WXV2 to win it. That's something we want to do, and we just need to keep making sure we're developing the players within that and getting better and better as a side.
"We want to win WXV2, of course we do, we want to get some of those wins across the line. That's massively important for us. But there's also loads of other ways we're measuring ourselves like on and off the field in terms of our statistics around our defence and our attack and there's other indicators as well to show that we're making that progress as well as the results on the field."
Currently on a five-game win streak against Wales that dates back to 2010 -- including four World Cup clashes -- money would be on the Wallaroos extending their unbeaten run but given how close their last two victories have been and their results of this year, this could very easily become a banana skin clash for the Wallaroos. Meanwhile, Ireland will be an unknown beast for Australia as it becomes their first match since 2017, but given their rise to WXV1 this year, they won't be an easy assignment.
"Ireland, over the last kind of a couple of seasons and now under Scott Bemand have really stepped up. They had a shaky period for a while, but you can see now as a Union that they're starting to invest in them more.
"They're getting more time with the players, and they've obviously done really well. They've got themselves up into WXV1 now, so they're performing well, and I'm really excited to see where we're at against a team like Ireland. Wales have always been real tight games, so that will be interesting too, to be playing Wales in Wales at their home ground."
Dealt a blow before leaving for the UK, the Wallaroos will be without one of their toughest players in Piper Duck who was ruled out through an ankle injury but given their depth in the back-row her absence should be covered.
The biggest issue for the Wallaroos though is finding the cattle to bolster their tight five. As already witnessed this year, they simply haven't been up to standard and until this issue is rectified Yapp will struggle to unleash her talented backline.
"We're trying to develop depth all the time within the squad, so actually this does give opportunities to other players and people like Leilani [Nathan] and Boo [Tabua Tuinakauvadra] and those players have been performing really well, so it's an extra opportunity for them now.
"It's [tight five] obviously a massively key position. It's an area that we know we wanted to get more physicality from when we're playing the likes of New Zealand, so having a look at these girls is really important for us, but having said that, across the board, the players have really stepped up in these camps and shown that physicality a lot more, which will be good to see whether that can transfer over into our Test matches."
The importance of this tour can't be understated. By the end of six weeks and five Tests, Yapp and her Wallaroos will finally know where they stand and what must be done ahead of next year's World Cup.