Hewson won the award after leading Sydney to back-to-back victories at the Buildcorp Women’s XVs National Championships and her standout performances in the Wallaroos' historic two-Test series against the Black Ferns in New Zealand.

“Winning the female XVs player of the year is a great accolade for me personally,” Hewson said.

“But I can only play to my full potential because of the team around me and to be surrounded by such a dedicated group of women has a lot to with that,.”

It caps off what has been an amazing 12 months for the 37-year-old Vincentia product, who recently captain the Wallaroos team for the first time in her career.

“Captaining Australia for the first time was a great experience to lead such an amazing group of women is something I will cherish forever,” she said.

“After the game one loss, the team and myself were devastated – we knew it was going to be a physical game against the Black Ferns but we regrouped and came out on Wednesday and played to our ability.

“It's difficult when you don't have as good a preparation and experience in test matches as the opposition but I think we showed true strength in the way we all came together to improve for the second test match.

“We stuck to our structures and matched them physically in the second test, if we can get more time together and more test match experience we can only get better.”

Following the tough test series against New Zealand, Hewson is looking forward to growing the game internationally.

“We have the possibility of further test matches against New Zealand, England and Canada next year,” she said.

“If this goes ahead, it will only develop our team and will give us the necessary experience we need going into the Women’s Rugby World Cup in Ireland next August.”