Media Watch: Leitch set for final challenge
By Fiona Tomas
23/6/23
“I’m the only person I know in women’s rugby who has ears like mine,” Poppy Leitch, the Exeter Chiefs captain, says enthusiastically. “Maybe I was born with soft ears.”
Leitch, an abrasive second row who will lead her side in a second successive Premier 15s final this weekend, does not shy away from questions about her cauliflower ears. While a common occurrence amongst male players – many will recall Graham Rowntree’s lumpy dishes to Martin Johnson’s deep fried discs – the iconic rugby condition is a rare phenomenon in the women’s game.
Leitch, an eloquent 25-year-old who has been capped seven times by England, proudly bucks this trend. Her bumpy ears are her point of difference, battle scars sustained in what has been the most brutal season yet in an increasingly competitive women’s top flight. Her right one deteriorated at a quicker rate than her left after getting hit in a scrum three months ago.
“It was probably about five times the size it is now,” she says. “They got six millilitres of blood out of it, which is a lot for an ear. It’s all just blood in your ear – the reason it hardens up is because the blood just dries out.”
“When they syringe it out, you’ve got to compress your ear to stop the blood from piling back into your ear, essentially, and it was so painful. I was crying at night. This was mid-season, a couple of months ago. They serrated it because it kept blowing up. They had to cut my ear. It was horrible.”
There are several reasons why cauliflower ears – when small collections of blood clot and block the flow of blood and nutrients after a trauma to the external part of the ear – among women’s players are such a rarity. Females typically start the game later while the majority of players – such as Nichola Fryday, Leitch’s Exeter team-mate – mitigate the risk of developing them by wearing tape or scrum caps.
“Nichola tapes her ears and she’s worried about getting them, which is funny because she got a smaller one a couple of weeks ago and I was like, ‘Nic, don’t even speak to me about cauliflowers’. My mum, my dad and my partner hate them, but I don’t really care if I look rubbish when I’m playing.”
Leitch has been the figurehead of an Exeter side determined to go one better than last year, when they were outmuscled in the showpiece 43-21 by Saracens. Despite finishing the regular season in second place behind Gloucester-Hartpury, Chiefs have scored more tries per game (7.4) than any other side this campaign and they continue to grow a thriving fan base at Sandy Park.
Susie Appleby’s side have excelled in the Premier 15s since their debut 2020-21 season but have raised eyebrows through the manner of their recruitment, with the nucleus of their squad consisting of players from the United States, Canada and even New Zealand. Next season, clubs will be required to field an average of 13 English-qualified players in an average matchday squad – with points deductions and potential fines for those who fail to meet that target. Leitch, who heads up Exeter University women’s side and coaches Exeter Athletic, offers a diplomatic assessment of the situation.
“We’ve got to remember that we’re still a really small population of people playing rugby, especially English women who are ready to play in the Premiership,” she says. “As the level of rugby grows, we need the catchment areas to grow at the same rate and they’re probably just a bit far off at the moment. As the championship standard increases, naturally that progression into the Prem is much more seamless. There are lots of moving parts to it.”
Her side will have to be at the top of their game against Gloucester-Hartpury at Kingsholm, which has aptly been renamed Queensholm tomorrow to add another layer of gloss to the occasion.
In what is the most hotly anticipated Premier 15s showdown yet between two outfits known for their eye-catching rugby, Exeter will look to become the first women’s top-flight team to pull off a league-and-cup double. “From a set-piece point of view, it’s going to be a bloodbath,” Leitch says. “You look at both our mauls, the scrum, even your five-metre pick-and-go game, there will be a huge amount of competition there.”
She pauses slightly, before adding: “If I had to have 10 cauliflower ears I would, if it meant winning the Premiership.” If there was ever a way to quantify how much it would mean to land a first domestic title, that would surely be it.