Appleby reflects on debut campaign
By Harry Scott-Munro
12/5/21
Exeter Chiefs Women’s head coach, Susie Appleby, admitted she was ‘incredibly proud’ of her side, despite them narrowly missing out on a top five finish in their debut season in the Allianz Premier 15s.
In atrocious conditions at Sandy Park, visiting Gloucester-Hartpury narrowly pipped the Chiefs to fifth spot with an 18-12 victory.
Tries from Ellie Underwood and Zoe Aldcroft, plus eight points from the boot of Emma Sing, proved enough to ensure the visitors became the only side to complete a league double over the Devonians, who countered with tries from McKinley Hunt and Merryn Doidge, one of which was converted by leading scorer Gabby Cantorna.
Reflecting on the match, Appleby admitted that the testing conditions had impacted on the match, particularly as both sides struggled to retain possession in the howling rain.
“It was a really tough day out there, conditions were dreadful and both sides were struggling to hold onto the ball,” said Appleby. “We didn’t really create enough in the second half, but we got ourselves down there, took points and then actually both teams played in the middle of the field, so it is what it is.”
Despite the conditions, the Chiefs still produced a moment of real quality to draw themselves level, Doidge latching onto a perfectly-weighted kick from Patricia Garcia to level proceedings.
“We’ve worked really hard on our run, kick, pass options. That kind of thing is straight off the training ground and that’s really pleasing,” added Appleby.
Defeat to their opponents meant that the Chiefs missed out on beating everybody in the league in their debut season, but Appleby was quick to praise former club Gloucester-Hartpury, before reflecting on the achievements of her own side in their debut campaign.
“We missed that one,” she continued. “They [Gloucester-Hartpury] are a really good side and were back to pretty much full-strength today. That said, we’ll go again at them next season. It was important for us to finish together. We went on a seven-match unbeaten run in our purple patch in the middle of the season and beaten all of the top four sides convincingly, we’ve got a lot of positivity to take into next season and we’re only going to grow.”
Before last weekend’s final match, Appleby revelled in how her side had managed to put themselves on the map and was delighted with what they had achieved together, before challenging her side to go again next season.
“We’re on the map where we wanted to be,” she continued. “The girls are learning and everyone has been on the journey together. The challenge now is to hit the season running, which we weren’t this season as the girls were strangers at the start. Where we’re sitting right now, we’ll take that.”