Exeter Chiefs Women v Leicester Tigers Women

Exeter Chiefs Women racked up their first win of the season with a comfortable win over the Leicester Tigers Women in the second round of the JAECOO Next Gen Cup. The home side set-piece dominance took its toll on the visitors as Chiefs scored 11 tries at Sandy Park and 50 points in the second half.

Tigers won the first penalty of the afternoon, but the ensuing lineout was stolen by lock Lola Whitley for winger Sammie Harris to stream into space with Deborah Wills waiting on the wing to make extra metres. The ball spilled in the next phase, however, giving Tigers their first scrum.

Chiefs had the next scrum of the day, and it looked more secure for the home side. Centre Nancy McGillivray found the gap in Tigers’ defence followed in by Liv McGoverne, also at centre. Tigers’ defence held firm for the next wave but could not stop No 8 Gabriella Nigrelli launching herself over the line just seconds later. McGoverne converted Nigrelli’s score to make it 7-0 after six minutes gone.

Tigers got their first points on the board through a penalty from fly-half Isobel Maguire-Evans. Full-back and captain Tess Fuery then found a gap in Chiefs’ defence to get Tigers back in the right half, but the ball was knocked on giving Chiefs the scrum. However, a forward pass halted the home side’s progress but they managed to push Tigers off the ball in their own scrum to win the penalty and possession.

The next lineout saw a solid take from lock Kate Smith and McGillivray threaten Tigers’ defence once again. It looked like Harris would make it over the line from the wing but the team re-grouped and got behind Whitley to send her over for her first try for the club and to make it 12-3 as the game reached the 17th minute.

A Chiefs penalty kicked to touch saw a home lineout inside the 22. Again, Smith provided a safe pair of hands with the drive to follow led by Nigrelli. Smith was held up over the line but, unperturbed, Chiefs regained possession. An inside ball from McGillivray to Eilidh Sinclair was passed onto debutant scrum-half Tilly Ryall for Chiefs’ third try and her first for the club.

As the first half came to a close, Tigers centre Eve Slater gave the away fans something to cheer about as she sped into Chiefs’ half but was brought down by Wills before she could trouble the try-line. The scoreline remained 17-3 until the referee blew the whistle for half-time.

As the rain dried up, Chiefs opened the try floodgates with three scored in the first seven minutes of the second half. Flanker Zoë Dare was the first to muscle over, rapidly followed by prop Alessia Skeates from a Chiefs lineout. Lastly, Carys Phillips scored on her Chiefs debut, again from close range. McGoverne took all three conversions to make it 38-3 before head coach Oli Bishop began to empty his bench of young replacements.

And it was one of those replacements who took the next try. Centre Danielle Preece arrived at speed following a Chiefs lineout to bundle over the line.

As the game reached the final quarter, the bench had been cleared seeing debuts for University of Exeter players Amelia Lambounrn, Izzy Newnes-Smith, Ellie Wood and Frankie Welsher.

A sweet interception from Dare released ever-dangerous McGillivray and saw her pass the ball back to Dare who was brought down just short of the try-line but Ellie Wood was waiting to score after a late inclusion on the bench. This represented her debut after three seasons in the Chiefs squad.

Tigers’ Slater, almost the try scorer from earlier in the game, found a gap in Chiefs’ defence to score the away team's first try. They also scored a second through replacement Zara Pickwick to take them to 13 points on the scoreboard.

However, Preece used her speed to pounce on two more opportunities in the last minutes of the game to bring up her hat-trick.

The last points on the board went to Chiefs as Nigrelli peeled off the back of a scrum to pass to McGillivray who fed the ball to Harris to do the rest. McGoverne kicked the conversion to make it 67-13 and to seal a very satisfying afternoon at Sandy Park.