Team news: Opportunity knocks for Exeter Chiefs Women for Sharks’ visit

Exeter Chiefs Women will field an altered 23 for their penultimate regular season PWR home game against Sale Sharks Women on Sunday (KO 12:00).

Injuries and squad rotation means Exeter Chiefs coaching team have had to select a starting XV featuring 12 personnel and positional changes from the side that narrowly beat Loughborough Lightning 15-19 last weekend.

Assistant coach Steve Salvin said: “This is a very, very good team we are putting out this weekend. A lot of the players that are not involved are being directly replaced with international players. It’s not like the quality of the team is massively different, we are just fortunate to have a deep squad and with us playing every week now up until Leicester, we do need to share the workload. This naturally creates opportunity, and that opportunity hopefully creates more difficult decisions for us in terms of selection.”

Flanker Maisy Allen is back on the injured list after last weekend having hurt her other ankle while Mikiela Nelson suffered a knee injury, and Cliodhna Moloney picked up a calf strain. Liv McGoverne also failed a late fitness test ahead of the Loughborough game, and Hope Rogers and Katie Buchanan are being given more time to recover from niggles.

This has opened the door for players who have patiently bided their time on the bench or as travelling reserves, so locally raised Lucy Nye gets her first Chiefs league start at scrum-half. Alexandra Tessier has moved back to full-back and takes on the captaincy role for the first time.

In the centres, Merryn Doidge will start at 13 and Gabby Cantorna returns to the No 12 jersey. After two weeks of sitting unused on the bench, Georgina Tasker will start on the wing.

Taylor Perry resumes duties at fly-half after her red card from the Loughborough game was dismissed by an independent disciplinary panel.

Prop Demi Swann and hooker Clara Nielsen will get game time alongside Charli Jacoby in the front row while Dorothy Wall will accompany Niamh Orchard, who will lead lineout calls for the first time, in the second row. Ebony Jefferies and Edel McMahon get their chance alongside Rachel Johnson in the back row.

The bench is stacked full of experience and international talent, including both the Robinsons, Poppy Leitch, Eilidh Sinclair and Flo Long.

Chiefs will be looking to build on last week’s result as the season heads towards its conclusion with just 12 points splitting the top five teams.

Salvin continued: “It shows where the league is going. For the last two or three years, it has been fairly evident who the top four were quite early, but it will probably go down to the last weekend or two to see which of those top five will be in the top four. Alongside that, Trailfinders and Loughborough are genuinely good teams and are only going to improve again in the summer.

“We could be in the position where there are seven teams looking at top four places next year, which is exactly where the league needs to go in terms of there being jeopardy in every game. It creates a bit more stress, but good stress as you must be on your mettle every single week now.

“The really important part of season is still to come. It’s nice in a way it’s come around early because this is the bit you really look forward to. There is going to be a lot of very tight games over the course of the next few weeks and hopefully it will build into a crescendo where hopefully we’re involved.

Exeter Chiefs Women’s game against Sale Sharks Women will kick off at 12:00 on Sunday. This round 15 PWR game is included in all season ticket packages or is just £11 for adults and £5.50 for 16s and under.

Exeter Chiefs Women

15 Alexandra Tessier (c)
14 Claudia MacDonald
13 Merryn Doidge
12 Gabby Cantorna
11 Georgina Tasker
10 Taylor Perry
9 Lucy Nye
1 Demi Swann
2 Clara Nielson
3 Charli Jacoby
4 Dorothy Wall
5 Niamh Orchard
6 Ebony Jefferies
7 Edel McMahon
8 Rachel Johnson

16 Emily Tuttosi
17 Flo Long
18 DaLeaka Menin
19 Poppy Leitch
20 Emily Robinson
21 Flo Robinson
22 Nancy McGillivray
23 Eilidh Sinclair