Chiefs Women to face Sale Sharks
By James Fowler
10/3/23
Exeter Chiefs Women’s Head Coach Susie Appleby spoke of how pleased she was that her side had ‘ticked’ the Twickenham experience off following their thumping 54-25 Allianz Premier 15s victory over Harlequins last Saturday.
The table-topping Chiefs will now roll onto facing the Sale Sharks at Sandy Park on Sunday (12pm), looking to increase their remarkable winning run which currently stands at 12 matches.
Reflecting on what was no doubt an incredible spectacle at Twickenham last weekend in front of a world record crowd for a women’s club rugby match of just over 15,000, Appleby underlined how proud she was of how her team handled the big occasion.
“I think the girls handled it really well,” she said. “It wasn’t the perfect performance, but we really did dominate, especially in that last 30 minutes and found a way into a really good victory.
“As for the occasion, we embraced it, we prepped for it the best we can, the same as we always do and I think the important thing is they didn’t get freaked by it, they just put a performance on the field that was good, and it was a very good game. It brought some of the best out of Quins' as well which made for a decent spectacle.”
One of the few negatives from the victory over Harlequins last weekend was the fact that the Exeter defence was made at times to look unusually fallible, with the Londoners breaching the Chiefs line on three separate occasions. Appleby believes however that those ‘stumbles’ will be vital in helping the side develop moving forward.
“If you don’t have those kinds of stumbles on the way then you’re just going to get into big games and come unstuck, so it’s good for us to. Until about 50/60 minutes, it really could have gone either way, so for us to then take hold of the game and put it to bed was really pleasing.”
Looking ahead to Sunday’s encounter, Appleby was keen to highlight the threats the side from Manchester, who contain a large contingent of American talent, will bring.
“Really good side, they’ve got a big American influence, even more than we have. They bring quite a lot of physicality, good set of backs, with some really decent nuggetty forwards. And they’ve had to fight this year to stay in the league, so they’re used to fighting and they’ll come down here and they won’t want to come second best.
“The big thing for us is we’re back at home and the girls love playing at home, we love the crowd coming in and there’s some good friends that come in now, so we’re hoping to finish (this latest block of games) on a high.”
Appleby has been forced to make a couple of changes to the side which came out victorious from their trip to the capital last weekend, however she is hopeful those changes won’t dent the incredible momentum that this remarkable Chiefs side has built up so far this season.
“Sadly Tricky (Edel McMahon) has picked up an injury, but Ebony (Jefferies) takes the starting shirt and Ebony was amazing on Saturday in that second half. Lori (Cramer) gets a start at full-back and she’s been sitting in the wings waiting and she gets an opportunity now. So a couple of changes but hopefully we can just continue the momentum that we’ve got going.”
With the domestic season about to take a break following this weekend’s game, Appleby was keen to reveal her pride at the number of players from her squad who have been selected for their respective international teams for the upcoming international fixtures, which includes the Women’s Six Nations Championships.
“Poppy (Leitch) getting called up is fabulous and Nancy (McGillivray). Obviously Claudia (MacDonald) is already there and back in a contract which is amazing, so three in the England camp, obviously several in Ireland, several in Scotland, Silvia (Turani) going off to play for Italy, and then Canada and USA are playing as well, and of course Robyn (Wilkins) and Abbie (Fleming) for Wales.
“So they’re all off and playing and I hope they get loads of pitch time and really enjoy their international exposure and they come back to us in one piece.”
With the Chiefs sitting top of the Allianz Premier 15s table with just five regular season fixtures left during this campaign, the Chiefs have certainly put themselves in a great position to go one better than last season and lift their first ever Premier 15s title, however Appleby insists that the focus very much remains on ‘working hard’.
“We keep working hard, but we’re under no illusions we want to get a good job done on Sunday hopefully that’s going to put us in a really good position into the break and then when you get into those latter games in the play offs anything goes.”
