Team news: Exeter Chiefs Women aiming for semi-final cup spot

Exeter Chiefs Women will be playing for a place in the PWR Cup semi-finals when they play Trailfinders Women at Sandy Park (KO 13:00).

This will be the first 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.

Whether for this game or for the first home PWR league season against Gloucester-Hartpury on 1 November, Exeter Chiefs Women’s head coach Steve Salvin is hoping the Rugby World Cup will have encouraged new fans to come and watch his team.

He said: “I went to almost all of those World Cup games and it inspired me. The club did an incredible job with the games that they put on. To have pretty much a full stadium, for seven fixtures...seven women’s fixtures? Like I said, it inspired me.

“If 50% of the people in that stadium felt that same inspiration that I did, hopefully some of them would go, ‘Do you know what? There is something in this and I'm going to go and watch [women’s rugby] on a more consistent basis.’ Those games were inspiring to sit and watch.”

Exeter Chiefs have made two changes to the starting line-up that beat Gloucester-Hartpury two weeks ago with University of Exeter’s Eva Sterritt in on the wing and flanker Taz Bricknell also returning to the back-row. On the bench, young prop Lilly Plowman is aiming to make her debut, scrum-half Lucy Nye is back from United Kingdom Armed Forces duty.

With one win apiece in Pool A, the winner of tomorrow’s game will progress to the semi-final to be played against the top placed team in Pool B on the weekend of 4/5 October.

Salvin added: “If we get through this game with a win, we obviously then have a semi-final and another game, be it a final or a third-fourth play-off. The intention is to put our best foot forward in terms of performance. If we do that, we give ourselves the best chance of winning the game.”

Chiefs Women will face Trailfinders Women who were beaten by Harlequins 38-22 last time out but beat Gloucester-Hartpury 60-12 in their first round.

“Ealing will be good,” continued Salvin. “When you think of how much recruitment Ealing have done with their squad, they've got immense depth. They've got a good number of international players playing this weekend, plus GB sevens players and some talented youngsters as well. They've got a good blend and a really good cup team. Hopefully that lends itself to us being able to perform in a similar way in a really competitive game.”

Exeter Chiefs Women v Trailfinders Women kicks off at 13:00 tomorrow. Tickets are £11 for adults and £5.50 for children and youths. This fixture is part of the women’s and men’s season ticket package too.

The England v France Rugby World Cup semi-final will be shown on screens in the County Suite after the game.

Exeter Chiefs Women

15 Merryn Elworthy

14 Eva Sterritt

13 Naomi Brennan

12 Hannah Bluck

11 Katie Buchanan

10 Liv McGoverne

9 Flo Robinson (vc)

1 Demi Swann

2 Kayleigh Preece

3 Alessia Skeates

4 Linda van der Velden

5 Emily Robinson (c)

6 Taz Bricknell

7 Maisy Allen (vc)

8 Gabriella Nigrelli

Replacements:

16 Sofia Bekir Fuente

17 ⁠Lucy Ward

18 Lilly Plowman

19 ⁠Lola Whitley

20 ⁠ Zoe Dare

21 ⁠Lucy Nye

22 Sophie Langford

23 Sammie Harris