Wallaroos vice-captain Emily Chancellor is keeping her focus on the present as the legendary back-rower enters a new season in the gold jersey.
The 34-year-old is the oldest in the side to face Fijiana on Friday, with the 34-cap veteran named in the back-row as interim coach Sam Needs bloods six new faces.
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It comes after the retirement of Trilleen Pomare and Lydia Kavoa after last year's World Cup, while Ash Marsters was not included in the managed group to start 2026.
Chancellor told Rugby.com.au and RugbyPass that she did not intend to be around for a third World Cup in 2029, even with how appealing a home World Cup would be.
It leaves the Waratah excited to make every opportunity count as they prepare to start their 10-Test calendar in the nation's capital, followed by a landmark tour of the USA as part of the Pacific Four Series.
“I am taking it game by game and day by day. I have a contract until the end of the year and I think, along with everyone else in this squad, I'm just going to keep working along and see what happens," she said to reporters.
“If I stop getting selected, we might have a different conversation, but at the moment I'm really enjoying my rugby. I'm fitter than I've ever been, I'm almost stronger than I've ever been and I feel like I'm playing some really good rugby, so I'm not going to put a timeline definitely on it just yet, but we'll see what happens.
“Now on this side of the year with games just upon us, I'm starting to get excited again. It's hard to say yes or no to an end time for me.”
Chancellor has had to adapt to a different format this year, with the shifting international calendar seeing Tests move before Super Rugby W.
It reflects the changing global calendar, with talks potentially underway for a similar shift for the Wallabies.
“It’s a double-edged sword because we've had so much time together. We've had three internal games that we've played and absolutely bashed the bleep out of each other and I think that that has been an absolute bonus because we don't get the opportunities to play as physical a game with the Australia versus Australia concept because we've had tests, we've had Super W, we've had games, we've had load management to be worried about," Chancellor explained.
“Right now, we've had this opportunity to completely invest in the Wallaroo space. So all girls have had sort of their eyes on that task only and I think that's been as much as it is hard because yes, we haven't got that complete game fitness, but we also have far more cohesion, I think than we have ever had before or should have going into this first test.
“I'd say obviously you want more games, but in the same breath, we've had more games together.”
