Team news: Black Fern Amy Rule gets first start for Exeter Chiefs Women
One of Exeter Chiefs Women’s summer signings, Black Fern Amy Rule, will make her first start for the club for tomorrow’s round two PWR game against triple champions Gloucester-Hartpury.
The 25-year-old made her club and PWR debut when she came off the bench against Trailfinders last weekend after just three training sessions following her post-Rugby World Cup break.
Rule, known as Cutter to her mates, will line up alongside Hope Rogers and Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald with the only other change in the pack seeing Gabriella Nigrelli start at flanker in the place of Taz Bricknell, who dislocated her kneecap last weekend.
Exeter Chiefs Women’s head coach Steve Salvin said: “We're so fortunate to have DaLeaka (Menin) and Amy. You are going to see those two switch roles at times. One will start, one will come off the bench and vice versa. DaLeaka started last weekend, and we've decided to go the other way this week.
“Put the rugby ability to one side, Amy’s brought an immense level of professionalism, which isn’t overly surprising with her coming from the Black Ferns. She's still got that thirst for knowledge and development, which is really good. She's extremely talented and someone we're very fortunate to have in our camp.
“Amy's very engaging with the other girls and tries to take other people with her, be it young players or senior experienced players. A really nice girl, fitted in really well. Very, very humble.”
Rule is looking forward to her first run-out at Sandy Park after missing the opportunity to play at her new home ground when the Black Ferns played there during the Rugby World Cup.
She said: “I just want to be me. I want to enjoy what I'm doing. I want to be a little bit cheeky. I want to be a menace around the ruck. I want to be clinical at set-piece. And I just want to play free.”
In the backs, Canada captain Alex Tessier will start at full-back while new signing and lock Abby Duguid will hope to make an impact from the bench. Former University of Exeter player and winger Katie Buchanan will make her 50th appearance for the club.
This will be the first PWR game played at Sandy Park in the wake of the seven Rugby World Cup matches hosted at the ground that attracted nearly 59,000 supporters from across the globe.
Salvin added: “The hope for us, not just for this weekend but for the course of the season, is that we do see more people coming to watch because they got that same buzz that I certainly felt around the city and around those World Cup games.
“We are fortunate before the World Cup came around that we had built a little bit of a following of our own. Hopefully those numbers can continue to grow, but we have been in a fortunate position where we've had fantastic numbers in the stadium and when they are in there, they are very, very loud.
“It does make a huge amount of difference to the girls. It's inspirational to have people in the background cheering you on and supporting you. Games like Saturday are going to be tough at times but to know you've got 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 people on your side, it really pushes you in the right direction.”
This PWR round two game between Exeter Chiefs Women and Gloucester-Hartpury will kick-off 15:00 tomorrow. Tickets are just £11 for adults and £5.50 for U17s. They are available here. The game is also being shown live on BBC iPlayer.
Exeter Chiefs Women
15 Alexandra Tessier
14 Katie Buchanan
13 Nancy McGillivray
12 Gabby Cantorna
11 Claudia Moloney-MacDonald
10 Liv McGoverne
9 Flo Robinson (vc)
1 Hope Rogers
2 Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald
3 Amy Rule
4 Linde van der Velden
5 Emily Robinson (c)
6 Gabriella Nigrelli
7 Maisy Allen (vc)
8 Maddie Feaunati
Replacements:
16 Emily Tuttosi
17 Demi Swann
18 DaLeaka Menin
19 Abby Duguid
20 Zoe Dare
21 Lucy Nye
22 Merryn Elworthy
23 Sabrina Poulin
