Team news: McGoverne to make her 50th appearance for Exeter Chiefs
After a league-wide rest week in the PWR, Exeter Chiefs Women return to action for round five against Sale Sharks Women with fly-half Liv McGoverne due to make her 50th appearance for the club.
McGoverne, who became Chiefs Women’s record points scorer against Loughborough Lightning three weeks ago, is now in her third season with the club, clocking up 38 league games, 11 in the cup and 344 points to date care of nine tries and 299 kicked points.
Ahead of her 50th game, McGoverne said: “It's exciting. It's not really something I've thought about that much, but I guess it's quite a cool milestone that I'll be able to reflect on.”
On her record points-scorer status, she added: “I guess I'm just lucky that we score lots of tries and I get to try and kick the goal! So, I guess it's kind of makes my job easy-ish to rack up the points a wee bit.”
Head coach Steve Salvin said: “I don't think when we signed Liv, we actually knew the quality of player that we were getting. I think one of the games that sticks in my mind was relatively early in that season we played Saracens at home and she was phenomenal. She ran the game against a fully loaded Saracens team and I think that was probably the day where we realised we'd got a really, really good one.
“With the exception of a 12-month period where she went back to New Zealand, Liv’s been a real mainstay. Of the 50 games that she's played, if you took out that 12-month block in the middle, we probably haven't played many more than 50 games in that period. It shows how important she is to the team and how often she does play for us.”
He added: “The bits that outsiders wouldn't see is Liv’s funny, she's quite laid back, she's a character and she adds real value to the team on a personal level.”
McGoverne will start tomorrow’s game at The Morson Stadium in her usual 10 jersey. Meanwhile, there has been rotation to the squad that defeated Harlequins two weeks ago with head coach Steve Salvin looking to give opportunities to younger members of the squad.
The backs remain unchanged with selection alternations only found among the forwards. Amy Rule will start at tighthead, Abby Duguid is back in the second row with Emily Robinson moving to flanker and Gabriella Nigrelli starting at No 8.
Maddie Feaunati misses out to recover from a minor shoulder injury and DaLeaka Menin has been given a week off after two back-to-back storming starts in rounds three and four.
On the bench, Abby Middlebrooke and Alessia Skeates lie in wait as prop replacements with Naomi Brennan re-called to cover the backs along with Maddie Flutey, who is line for her PWR debut.
Salvin said: “We've got some really good, exciting young players involved this week and obviously a debut alongside with Maddy Flutey being involved.
“We've made a real conscious effort this year to put a more extensive infrastructure around our under 23s programme. My background is in academy coaching and I've seen the value in players coming through the system because they tend to have a deeper emotional attachment to the club, so we want it to be a real foundation of our programme.”
Exeter Chiefs Women go into round five with the most successful tackles in the league with 738 and the most scrum wins with 34 out of 40. Flanker Maisy Allen made the most successful tackles (28) in the PWR’s round four while prop Hope Rogers won the most turnovers (4). Winger Claudia Moloney-MacDonald also leads the Premiership in metres made with 372.
The game kicks off at 14:00 tomorrow with tickets available here. The game is also being streamed live on the PWR’s YouTube channel while BBC Radio Devon is providing live commentary.
Exeter Chiefs Women
15 Merryn Elworthy
14 Katie Buchanan
13 Nancy McGillivray
12 Alex Tessier
11 Claudia Moloney-MacDonald
10 Liv McGoverne
9 Flo Robinson (vc)
1 Hope Rogers
2 Emily Tuttosi
3 Amy Rule
4 Linda van der Velden
5 Abby Duguid
6 Emily Robinson (c)
7 Maisy Allen (vc)
8 Gabriella Nigrelli
16 Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald
17 Abby Middlebrooke
18 Alessia Skeates
19 Dorothy Wall
20 Zoe Dare
21 Lucy Nye
22 Naomi Brennan
23 Maddie Flutey