Chiefs Women to face DMP Sharks
By James Fowler
25/11/22
For the second time this season, Exeter Chiefs Women will head to the North East to face Darlington Mowden Park in their latest Allianz Premier 15s fixture (12pm).
Undone in their seasonal opener last week by Gloucester-Hartpury, Susie Appleby and her squad will be looking for a rapid response at the Darlington Arena in Round Two of the competition.
In what is their longest trip of the season, the Chiefs will head up the motorway network to tackle a Darlington Mowden Park side, who have tended to struggle at this level, perhaps best highlighted by the fact they failed to register a single victory in the Premier 15s last season.
Like the Chiefs, they too suffered defeat on the opening weekend, losing out 31-12 against the Sale Sharks.
With most of the Exeter Chiefs World Cup players rested for the opening round fixture last weekend, the Chiefs coaches backed the young stars who performed so well during the Allianz Cup Pool games which preceded the Premier 15s competition. Looking back on the loss, Assistant Coach Steve Salvin said: “The extra experience they (Gloucester-Hartpury) had in their team probably told a little bit,”
However, he also believes the exposure his young charges gained at Premier 15s level will serve the side well in the long term, adding: “It’s always disappointing to lose the game and we felt going into the game that we had every chance of winning it based on the fact we played them 3-4 weeks ago (in the Allianz Cup) with similar teams out and won that game.
“We knew they were strong; we knew that they probably had more experience in their team than we had; but I think having reflected on it, the scoreline is certainly fair. We don’t dispute the scoreline at all, but I think the extra experience they had in their team probably told.
“That said, I look at five players in particular, Abby Middlebrooke and Lizzie Hanlon, props who are 20, 21 years-old, Katie (Buchanan) on the wing, Sophie (Langford) and Danielle (Preece) in the centres, they’re 18, 19-year-old kids and to get that exposure at that age in a full bore Premiership game is massive experience for them. That, I’m sure, will stand us in good stead longer term. It’s the first game of the season, disappointing to lose at home, but having had a bit of time to reflect there’s huge positives to come out of the weekend.”
Salvin spoke about how excited he is to see some of the World Cup stars return to training this week, and he went onto say that everyone is really ‘enthused and excited’ by what’s ahead in the next few months with more players arriving into the squad.
“We’ve had Rachel Johnson back in with the forwards this week, we’ve had Silvia (Turani) the Italian loosehead prop arrive and Charli (Jacoby) the American tight-head prop arrive, who are both new players. Gabby Cantorna’s back in, Robyn (Wilkins) the Welsh 10/12 is back in, so we can see that depth growing sort of week by week.
“Obviously, over the next couple of weeks we’ll have everyone back and we know when everyone’s available what a good side we are and what a good squad we are.
“We knew the challenges of the first two/three months of the season, and we knew this time would come when everyone came back in, so I think everyone’s really enthused and excited by the next few months.”
Despite the DMP Sharks perennial underdog status, and the Chiefs comprehensive victory over DMP in the opening game of the season in the Allianz Cup (73-0), Salvin was keen to talk about how much tomorrow’s hosts have improved and the threats they could pose.
“They are vastly improved. We did a defence preview on them, and we’ve watched their previous three or four games and there is some footage where you see genuine threats in them. They’re really good off set-piece in terms of their strike plays. They’ve got some outstanding players who are capable of having moments of brilliance.
“They are well coached, Mark Luffman is a very, very good coach and I think pound for pound the improvements they’ve made since probably Christmas time last year is probably equal to or more so to any other teams in the competition.
“We recognise that we go up there as heavy favourites and hopefully we’ll come back with a five-point win, but the key message this week was pay them respect, because they are vastly improved, so we’re going up there expecting a real challenge.”
