PWR champion Wills signs for Chiefs Women

Exeter Chiefs Women have signed Saracens Women’s winger Deborah Wills ahead of the 2026/27 season.

A decorated sevens player, Wills won a bronze medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, the 35-year-old tallies nearly a decade of PWR experience with Saracens, Bristol Bears Women and Worcester Warriors Women.

About her move to Exeter, Wills said: “Chiefs is an iconic west country club, being Cornish it’s my home PWR club and the opportunity to represent Chiefs with a talented group of players is really exciting. I’m looking forward to hunting down the PWR title.”

Having come into the sport at a later stage in life, Wills’ prowess was identified as part of the UK Talent Transfer programme in 2012 when she was 21 years old and joined the England Rugby Sevens pathway.

In the years that followed, she balanced being a member of the England Elite Sevens squad and appearances for GB Sevens with a domestic career in the PWR. Collectively, she has made more than 50 appearances in the PWR, more than 100 appearances in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series and represented Great Britain at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Exeter Chiefs Women’s assistant coach Oli Bishop said: “We’re really excited to have Deborah joining us this season. An athlete of her calibre is only going to add value to the competitive programme that we already have.

“It’ll be exciting to see what Deborah can really do with the opportunities we plan to create for her, especially in that wide channel, and she’ll hopefully add a little more speed to an already talented and competitive back-three unit.

“Deborah is not just an incredible athlete, she’s also a very accomplished rugby player having played with GB Sevens for a number of years in some top competitions as well as playing in the league for teams like Bristol and Saracens.

“Having her experience on and off the pitch is going to be huge for us in terms of culture and helping to create an identity and a style of rugby that we hope our supporters as well as our team are excited to see played.”