Team news: Flo Robinson reaches 100-game milestone

Exeter Chiefs Women’s scrum-half Flo Robinson will play her 100th game for the club when she runs out at Sandy Park on Sunday for the last home game of the season.

The 24-year-old will become the women’s fourth centurion having played 85 league games and 14 cup games for the club, scoring 19 tries along the way.

Robinson made her debut as a University of Exeter student against Gloucester Hartpury in October 2020. She spent a year with Harlequins while she studied for a master’s in immunology at King’s College before returning to Chiefs with her older siter Emily in tow.

Head coach Steve Salvin said: “Flo has been an integral part of our squad for five of our last six years. Her rise from a first-year university student to an England international has been a pleasure to witness. She thoroughly deserves the recognition she has received from the Red Roses this year, but we already knew she was an outstanding player before her run in the Six Nations. I am so pleased she gets to celebrate her 100th appearance in front of a home crowd at Sandy Park. I also look forward to her racking up 100 more!”

In other team news, Chiefs Women’s fly-half Liv McGoverne has returned from an ankle injury to make the starting line-up. This means Merryn Elworthy can return to her usual berth at full-back and Sabina Poulin moves to the wing. The centre partnership of Nancy McGillivray and Alex Tessier remains unchanged, along with the make-up of the pack.

Hope Rogers and Amy Rule will flank Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald in the front row with Linde van der Velden and Dorothy Wall behind them. Emily Robinson will lead the team from blindside flanker with Maisy Allen at openside and DaLeaka Menin back in the No 8 shirt, with Maddie Feaunati still unavailable.

On the bench, prop Abby Middlebrooke will get the chance to play her last home game for Chiefs while Lola Whitley and Danielle Preece will also get an opportunity from the bench.

Chiefs Women are already guaranteed a semi-final with Saracens Women awaiting the Devon contingent next weekend. Chiefs Women’s assistant coach Oli Bishop is not looking too far ahead though.

He said: “The only game that we can prepare for is the game this weekend. For us, it's a hugely important one against Sale, who are a physical team. We drew against them earlier in the season, and they're coming into their final game. This will be their first game back since the international break, and we're expecting them to come full noise against us. For us, it's about whether we can get our process right? Can we keep building momentum that will lead into those following weeks, because it's not isolated week, semi-finals and finals, it's a build-on of where we're at.”

Tickets for Sunday’s game are still available here. Adult tickets are just £11 and children and young people 17 and under are just £1. The match will also be streamed live on BBC iPlayer with live updates also available in our match centre.

Exeter Chiefs Women

15 Merryn Elworthy
14 Sabrina Poulin
13 Alex Tessier
12 Nancy McGillivray
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 Dorothy Wall
6 Emily Robinson (c)
7 Maisy Allen (vc)
8 DaLeaka Menin

Replacements:
16 Emily Tuttosi
17 Lola Whitley
18 Abby Middlebrooke
19 Gabriella Nigrelli
20 Zoë Dare
21 Lucy Nye
22 Danielle Preece
23 Katie Buchanan