Oli Bishop joins Chiefs Women as new backs and attack coach

Exeter Chiefs Women will benefit from Oli Bishop’s extensive coaching experience when he joins the team ahead of the 2025/26 season.

A total of 11 years in the women’s top league, Bishop worked with Wasps Women for nine seasons before following Giselle Mather to Trailfinders as defence coach ahead of the 2023/24 season, so he will be familiar to Chiefs’ ex-Wasps players, Claudia MacDonald, Edel McMahon, Cliodhna Moloney, Sammy Wong and Lucy Nye. He was acting head coach for Wasps for four months having previously been in the attack and backs coach role.

In his time with Trailfinders, he has helped guide the newest club in the women’s top league to some impressive results, including wins over Bristol Bears and Loughborough Lightning. He has also overseen the U23 players’ development.

Exeter Rugby Club CEO and chairman Tony Rowe CBE said: “Oli’s appointment is part of a reorganisation of the Chiefs Women’s set-up, which will also include the use of brand-new training premises. With Oli’s help, we will head into the 2025/26 Cup and PWR with our new structure in place for a season that will be so important for women’s rugby.”

Chiefs Women assistant coach Steve Salvin said: “Oli has proven experience working with female athletes. He has expertise in defence, skills and attack, so will be an ideal addition to our coaching team. We have wanted to bring him to Chiefs for a while now and I am delighted we I have been successful in securing his services for next season.”

Bishop has also coached multiple school, university and county teams, and has experience working overseas in Ireland and New Zealand, as well as with various men’s and women’s sevens squads plus community coaching roles for Harlequins and the RFU.

He said: “I’m absolutely thrilled to be joining Exeter Chiefs Women for the 2025/26 season. The club has a great culture, a hugely talented squad, and has huge potential going into this coming season.

“We have some absolute athletes in this squad: one to 23 on a match day, they all have incredible capabilities, and we are going to see some really awesome one-on-one battles on that pitch.”

In terms of what Bishop will bring to the coaching set-up, he added: “It’s going to be an evolution not a revolution. I think potentially we are looking at being a bit more expansive and more clinical in certain areas. We are going to be looking for a few more off-loads and how we can increase our line-break stats.

“Steve has done an awesome job with the forwards, and we have a hell of a set-piece. I think we have got something there that creates a huge number of tries and has done from inception of Chiefs, which will be a great platform for us.

“It’s now looking at how we are going to utilise these athletes in the wider channels, whether that’s Claud or Katie, or whoever, and linking them up with Liv’s offloads and Tess’s game understanding, then we’ll be in a really good place.

“If you cannot tell already, I’m really looking forward to working alongside the squad, helping to develop the team’s attacking play, and contributing to the continued growth of the club. It is a privilege to join such an ambitious group, and I can’t wait to get started.”

Bishop concluded: “The style of life down here is something does appeal to me too, but also the support the club has from Exeter. You want to be around a club that has such passionate and loyal fans, that is something special and is a driving force for the squad.”