Australia's women booked their first ever semi-finals appearance at a Rugby World Cup with an emphatic 62-0 victory over South Africa at Surrey Sports Park in Guildford on Saturday.

The Wallaroos secured their necessary four-try bonus point within 30 minutes and piled on nine tries to give themselves the best chance of qualifying as the best performing runner-up across the tournaments three pools.

Centre Sharni Williams scored her second try of the match during the final play of the game, lifting Australia past the 56 points required to knock Canada out of the race to the last four on a superior for-and-against record.

Coach John Manenti and his squad then had a nervous wait on the outcome of the match between hosts England and the USA to ensure they would finish as the fourth seed and book a place in the WRWC semi-finals.

The Wallaroos will play England on Wednesday night at Twickenham Stoop.

New Zealand, chasing a fourth world title, demolished Wales 41-8 on Saturday and will play the other semi-final against France.

Manenti was pleased to see his squad continue to improve with every game.

"The important thing is that we learnt from our loss to New Zealand and we were able to make adjustments to our game," Manenti said.

"We finished seventh at the last World Cup and it's been a big goal of ours to lift Australia's world ranking and we're well on our way to achieving that."

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