Seven women, who represented the ACT Women’s side during the recent National Women’s XVs Championship, began training with an extended Wallaroos squad on the Gold Coast.

Forwards Kate Brown, Louise Burrows and Georgia O’Neil and Backs Fiona Knights, Michelle Perry, Talya Stanford and Remi Wilton have all been selected in the squad that will train at Bond University on the Gold Coast until Sunday.

The women were all part of the ACT XV side that finished runner-up to Sydney at the recent national championships.

A number of the players also took part in the local women’s competition that was taken out by Royals this year in a thrilling Grand Final against Vikings.

Wilton one of the youngest players in the squad hails from Narooma on the NSW South Coast, and regularly travels to the ACT twice a week for training.

At a recent emerging talent camp for young female rugby players held at Brumbies HQ, Wilton said the rising profile of women’s rugby internationally is what lured her to the sport.

“I was playing league until I was 12 and couldn’t play with the boys anymore but I went to boarding school,” Wilton said.

“A couple of friends got me involved and said come to training so it just kicked off from there and I just loved it.”

The announcement comes as fellow ACT Women’s rugby product Sammy Maxwell prepares to represent Australia in Rugby Sevens at the 2015 Youth Commonwealth Games next month.

The Wallaroos have started the five-day high performance training camp on Wednesday, August 26 at Bond University, Gold Coast as the side looks to build on squad depth in the lead up to the Women’s Rugby World Cup in 2017.

The Nationals saw over 200 Wallaroos aspirants get whittled down to a high performance unit of 40 women aiming to improve their abilities and further impress national coaching staff ahead of the 2016 season.