Zackary celebrates milestone with victory
By James Fowler
19/2/23
Kate Zackary admitted she’s ‘excited’ to see where Exeter Chiefs can go after they maintained their hot streak in the Allianz Premier 15s with a 57-5 win at Worcester Warriors.
On a special day for Zackary – she became the fifth Chiefs Women’s player to make 50 appearances for the Devon club – the American international once again played her part as Susie Appleby’s side moved to the top of the table.
In another impressive display, the visitors ruled supreme, running in eight tries at Sixways through Claudia MacDonald (3), Hope Rogers (2), Maisy Allen, Ebony Jefferies and Cliodhna Moloney.
The win, Exeter’s 10th in the top-flight this season, capped a fine day for Zackary, who received the acclaim of her team-mates at the final whistle for reaching her latest milestone.
“It’s an honour, you know it’s a club that I’ve become a part of since its inception two and a half years ago,” she said. “It’s been a real pleasure playing alongside these girls in this team and watching it grow, I’m just excited to continue to see where we go.”
Success in last season’s Allianz Cup and runners-up in the Allianz Premier 15s was a clear indication of the progress which has been made by the Chiefs, whose latest success ensure they hit 50 league points for the season so far.
“We’re happy with the win, we’re happy to retain our position at the top of the table, but I think a lot left to be desired in what we put out on the pitch today,” added Zackary. “We weren’t quite as precise as we wanted to be, but then again small victories, we got some people over the try line, Maisy Allen’s back putting tries down.
“There were a lot of great performances, but as a whole I think we’ll take this home and we’ll improve.”
Despite the comprehensive final scoreline, there can be no doubt about the effort and heart showed by the Warriors throughout the entire 80 minutes, and Zackary was only too keen to praise the efforts of the Worcester team whom she believed showed ‘their Warrior mentality’.
“Worcester gave us all they had,” she continued. “You know they’re a physical team, they never give up and I really appreciate their Warrior mentality. They’re always a fun team to play because they always challenge us, and they challenge themselves to continue to be better.”
Zackary has proven herself to be equally adept playing at either centre or in the back-row and the versatile USA Eagles captain believes that being able to play in different positions has really helped develop her game.
“Every once in a while if I’m not expecting it, it might take me a few minutes just to remind myself if I’m in the backs to get away from a breakdown and if I’m a forward go to the breakdown, but it’s a really great way to work on my dynamic playing ability.
“I like to play in the outside channels but maybe I don’t do it well enough, so it certainly challenges that part of my game, maybe it’s thrown me back into some of my sevens mentality way back in the day. It’s nice it keeps it interesting, but more importantly it’s helped me develop my skills at eight.”
With the Chiefs ultimately aiming to win their first-ever Allianz Premier 15s title at the end of this season, you could forgive Zackary for purely being focussed on that task, however she was also keen to reflect on the impact her side’s success is having on inspiring the next generation of stars and growing the women’s game in the South West.
“We’ve got different countries on the same team chasing the same goal which is to be the best players and versions that we can be, but also raise one of the best teams in the South West and grow the game, not just only girls, but boys and women who are learning the sport. I think everyone’s got that passion about rugby and everyone’s got that passion to be the best and grow the best rugby around and it’s just special to be a part of that.”
The Chiefs will welcome the Loughborough Lightning to Sandy Park this Saturday before travelling the week after to Twickenham Stadium to take on Harlequins in Big Game 14, where the Chiefs men are also taking on the same opponents at the same venue.
“We’ve got an exciting month ahead, we’ve got Loughborough at home and then at Twickenham shortly after for a couple of big games back to back. You don’t want to look too far ahead, but we are a couple of big wins away from really sealing our fate in the play-offs come June. However, our first order of business is to get a huge crowd out at Sandy Park next Saturday for the big game against Loughborough.”