Garcia loving her Chiefs experience
By Harry Scott-Munro
17/4/21
Spanish half-back Patricia Garcia has called upon her Exeter Chiefs team-mates to “embrace it” as her side look to finish their debut season in the Allianz Premier 15s on a high, starting with their final away match of the season against Sale Sharks today (1pm).
The vastly-experienced scrum-half has been an asset to the club, both on and off the field this season, and with the return of community rugby she has been throwing herself into volunteering with Community Chiefs, to impart her years of knowledge and experience to the younger generation.
“It has been fun to help with the community team and the Centre of Excellence,” she said. “Everyone is excited and now we can do community rugby with clubs out on the field.”
Government restrictions have limited the amount of activity that amateur and junior players have been able to do this season – and Garcia firmly believes that “face-to-face training is one of the most important parts of rugby.”
“I’m so passionate about moments like this to share being on the field with this amazing team, but also off the field, playing with kids, adults, those with disabilities,” she continues. “It’s just amazing to be able to share our knowledge and our passion.”
Garcia has been an integral part of the squad this season, appearing in 10 matches and she has admitted that her “love” for the South West and Exeter has grown ever since she arrived in Devon, although she admitted that the hope of fans being able to attend matches next season is a driving factor behind her wanting to experience the complete Exeter Chiefs experience.
“I’ve been really impressed with how things have been going over here and how professional the project is. Both men’s and women’s, it has been really outstanding,” she explains. “I haven’t seen many projects like this in my career, so I’m really proud to be part of it. Hopefully, next season, we can continue this and welcome in the fans and the community. I’m really excited to see the full Exeter Chiefs experience.”
This weekend sees Garcia and her team-mates come up against fellow league newbies Sale Sharks, against whom Exeter secured a 38-0 victory before Christmas in the only women’s match that fans have been allowed to attend this season.
Garcia understands that the Sharks will provide a very different proposition to what they did pre-Christmas but is expecting her side to remain “focused” as they look to back up their victory over Loughborough Lightning last time out.
“That victory over Loughborough was obviously very good for the team atmosphere, especially after the defeat to Saracens,” she added. “Sale Sharks are a new side like us, but they have really good players. They’ve put together some very good games. We’ve watched lots of the videos, analysed them properly and definitely we know it’s going to be hard and different to here at home as they have been working really hard the last couple of months.”
With the Sale match representing the penultimate match of the season for her side, Garcia wants her side to continue the positive atmosphere and results that have come this season.
“We’re really focused. It’s one of our last two games and we have to be really prepared for them. The team is so proud of where we are and what we’ve been achieving, especially in the second half of the league (post-Christmas.)”
On top of this, Garcia was quick to praise the efforts of the players, coaches and wider support staff in helping Chiefs get to the position they now find themselves in and fostering the positive atmosphere within the squad.
“I think we’ve all been together, staff and players and now it is paying (dividends) with all of the results. Now we need to embrace it and be happy with what we have done to finish the end of the season in a good way.”