Leitch praises Exeter's all-round game
By James Fowler
12/12/22
There was a clear sense of pride in Exeter Chiefs Women’s captain, Poppy Leitch, as she and two of her team-mates, Ebony Jefferies and Merryn Doidge all made their 50th appearance for the club in the 54-5 victory over Loughborough Lightning on Saturday.
Leitch spoke about how delighted she was with her team’s performance, especially considering the disruption the side faced, with the venue and kick off time being changed with only 24 hours’ notice.
“We had a change of venue and a change of kick-off time which is difficult, but I thought we managed it really well,” she said. “It was good to get the win, and that’s a massive win for us going forward. We’ve got Harlequins next week at home, and then it’s the Christmas break, so that gives us real confidence going into that next fixture.”
Speaking further about the late change, Leitch added; ‘We heard the news and people got frustrated as Franklin’s Gardens is such a great place to play, but I think we just cracked on to be honest.
“I don’t know whether early morning (kick-offs) suit us as you don’t have time to over think about the match, you’ve just got to wake up and literally just have breakfast and go, so personally for me I don’t think it ended up bothering us too much, and I think this is a decent pitch and we had decent weather so it didn’t really stop the kind of way we really wanted to play today which is important.”
With the Chiefs now having scored over 200 points in their last three matches, you could forgive Leitch for eulogising about her side’s attacking prowess, however she was instead keen to focus on the defence, in particular the systems that Chiefs Assistant Coach Steve Salvin has implemented, which Leitch believes has been hugely crucial in the side’s development.
“We’re a multi threat team which is amazing, but I think to be honest it’s probably the defence that’s actually giving us the scoreline, because we’re hunting to get the ball back, and we’re really aggressive off the edge and we’re working hard in our system which Steve (Salvin) has implemented in the last two years.
“It’s amazing to come away with scorelines like that, but I think the accolade is probably to the defensive work that’s been going on, so we’re then lucky that we can get the ball back and we can play the shape that we want to, but it’s probably the defence that’s actually doing it.”
Leitch spoke about how ‘amazing’ it was to make her 50th appearance for the club alongside her team mates and house mates Jefferies and Doidge, who have all been with the side since its beginnings just two seasons ago.
“It was amazing, of course it was, and to do it with Ebony and with Merryn was massive, we all live together, we’re all local, we all studied at Exeter University together, so it feels like I’m really fortunate to make my 50th with those two as well.
“There are people coming up to their 50th (appearance) as well, so there’ll be more to come and what’s amazing about this club is people want to stay, because we have a really good family ethos around here. We’ve got three 50s now, but we’re going to have many more 50s to come which is the most important thing.”
Saturday’s game against Loughborough Lightning also saw Red Roses star Claudia MacDonald make her first appearance in Chiefs colours after her summer move from Wasps, and Leitch spoke about how well she and the other World Cup stars have integrated back into the Chiefs environment.
“Everyone that came back into the squad or who were new this year have integrated really well and Claudia (MacDonald) is just one of those,” she continued. “I think what’s just as important is the squad’s been working really hard whilst those guys have been at a World Cup and being amazing for their country, so they’ve been able to come back into an environment where they’re able to be themselves, and also those that haven’t been away have also managed to be themselves and continue that.”
“We’ve got World Cup players, we’ve got local players, we’ve got full depth in the squad, and that’s the most important thing.”