Leitch loving life with the Chiefs
By Harry Scott-Munro
26/2/21
Exeter Chiefs second-row Poppy Leitch has been thrilled by the “really impressive journey” her side have been on during their debut season in the Allianz Premier 15s.
After a difficult start to life in the league, losing their first three matches, Susie Appleby’s side have won seven of their last nine matches, including five in a row, to propel them into the conversation for the play-offs come the end of the season.
“I think people are really impressed by the journey we’ve been on so far,” explains Leitch. “If you look at DMP when we played away, we were a really new side, different people were starting. If you look at where the squad is now, and the progression that’s been made, it’s been a really impressive journey and one that I think we weren’t necessarily expecting ourselves either.”
Leitch credits the environment that has been fostered amongst the playing squad for the performance of the side this season, with the friendly atmosphere encouraging each player to work harder for their teammates.
“It’s really nice to be part of a club where everyone gets on really well and you can see the friendships across the whole club from 1-40. It’s not just that we’ve got this Premiership group, we’re all integrated.”
Leitch also highlighted the work done behind the scenes by Head Coach Appleby in creating such a strong squad unity.
“I think Susie has done really well to push that (squad unity) and this last week, we all mixed in training to make sure everyone got an opportunity to run with everyone and it’s nice to know you’ve got all these friends around you,” added Leitch. “We’re such a tight-knit group of girls that it shows in our performance. Those little wins that we get and everyone goes mad; big tackles, big turnovers. It speaks for itself.”
It’s been two weeks since the Chiefs last took to the field at a snowy Sixways against Worcester Warriors, but Leitch was quick to praise that performance, particularly in defence where the visitors had to dig deep to secure their latest victory.
“We were pleased to come away with the win, but there were still lots of things we picked up on, improvements that we need to make,” she continued. “That said, I think we’re in a really good place going into DMP.
“We’re really looking forward to putting in a big performance this weekend and working on some things, not only from the Worcester game, but actually previous weeks before. Like Susie has said, little learnings each week.”
Looking ahead to tomorrow’s encounter at Sandy Park (12pm), Leitch insists that her side have “done their homework” on their opponents.
“We’ve looked at their strengths, we’ve looked at things we can exploit, but like everyone says, you have to go into every game all guns blazing,” she warned. “This league is so competitive with people turning over teams that people maybe wouldn’t expect them to and against DMP, we need to go in with the same mindset, the same progression.”
One of the key pillars behind the success of this Chiefs side this season has been the strength of the defensive effort. Whilst it has proved to be a strong feature of her side’s performances all season, the defence has hit a different level since the resumption of the league season, with sessions from specialist coaches propelling it to new heights.
“We’ve been really fortunate to have Julian Salvi come in and run a few sessions. We’ve got Haydn Thomas and Rob Hunter coming in and that, with Amy and Susie, we’re just really fortunate. I think the mindset has been the change for us in terms of defence. We’ve got loads of players that are really strong defensively, but something clicked and in that Sarries, everyone realised that we can defend hard.”