Nielson expects real test in league opener

By James Fowler
19/11/22

Exeter Chiefs Women’s hooker, Clara Nielson, was keen to emphasise how beneficial the elongated pre-season has been, with many of the young up-and-0coming Chiefs stars having the opportunity to showcase their ability in the Allianz Cup Pool games.

Nielson spoke further about how important the Allianz Cup is for this side, having so emphatically won the competition last season.

“It has been a long pre-season, but I think for us it’s been really beneficial. We’ve got quite a lot of new young girls that have come in, and it’s been really exciting to see how they’ve gone through the cup, and obviously the cup is a really important building block for the season, but also we won it last year, so that’s very much our focus again this year for that part (of the season) as well.”

When talking about the World Cup players coming back into the fold, Nielson spoke about how excited she is to see those players return to the squad, and how much competition there will now be for places.

“I think excited really, obviously we’ve got some massive talent to come back and that is super exciting, but it’s been a really good vibe so far and I’m definitely sure that the world cup girls will come back in and add to that.

Everyone’s just going to be pushing each other which is really exciting. I think the competition this year has probably stepped up from last year, so the girls that are currently in the shirt are going to be pushing all the way, and those World Cup girls are going to come back in and add to that competition.”

Looking ahead to the first game of the Allianz Premier 15s season against Gloucester-Hartpury on Saturday (3pm), Nielson said she is expecting a tough battle, however she was keen to highlight that the focus in the build-up has very much been on their own performance.

“They’ve recruited really well, and we know they’re going to be tough. We’ve played them in the cup once and it was a really good battle. We know who their threats are going to be, but it’s the first league game, and I think the focus is very much just on us and our performance.”

Nielson went onto speak about how much she and the rest of the squad are looking forward to playing in front of the home Sandy Park crowd for the first time in the league this season, in what is hoped to be a bumper crowd of over 1000 in attendance.

“Everyone here absolutely loves it, it’s such a good atmosphere and the crowds got better every week last season, and we’re hoping for a big crowd to start us off. We absolutely love playing here and the crowd are a really important part of that.”