Team news: International hookers back for Trailfinders’ visit

Exeter Chiefs Women will welcome back international hookers Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald and Emily Tuttosi for this Saturday’s PWR game against Trailfinders Women.

Ireland international Moloney-MacDonald has recovered from a hamstring injury to start the game while Canada’s hooker Tuttosi is now clear of concussion symptoms.

Moloney-MacDonald will line up alongside Hope Rogers and Amy Rule to front up the rest of an unchanged pack from last Friday.

The one change in the backline sees Francesca Granzotto selected to start on the wing with Katie Buchanan looking to make an impact from the bench.

Chiefs go into this weekend leading the PWR for carries (1,729) and total successful tackles (2,125).

Flanker and vice-captain Maisy Allen tops the PWR with 228 successful tackles and ranks second for total ruck entries (310), while fellow back-row and captain Emily Robinson leads the league for attacking ruck entries (258).

Chiefs continue to lead the league with the highest kick metres this season (7,008).

Conversely, Trailfinders Women lead the PWR’s defensive metrics with 93 dominant tackle contacts and an 82.5% tackle success rate this season.

With Chiefs just four points behind Trailfinders, this game could see the two sides swap places in the PWR.

Exeter Chiefs’ head coach Steve Salvin said: “I suppose it's a 10-pointer. We have the potential to put a little bit of a gap between us and Ealing, but we could also finish the day below Ealing, so that creates a little bit of pressure.

“What's really important is to keep your focus on the process rather than the outcome, and that's something that we’ll go after really hard. We've had some big games this year and this feels as big as any of them.”

He added: “There's been three or four instances this year where, off the back of disappointing results, particularly away from home, we've come back to Sandy Park and played really, really well. Naturally, I'm hopeful, but I also feel pretty confident, that we'll get a similar sort of reaction from the girls this week off the back of the Gloucester game.”

Chiefs lost to Gloucester Hartpury last time out but still managed to score four tries on the road.

No 8 Maddie Feaunati said: “The scoreboard didn't reflect how I felt the game was going. Gloucester are class, and they finished every opportunity that they got, but I thought that we competed really well. But we don't want to be in the team that just competes, we want to win those games, so we took a lot and learned from the opportunities that we missed.”

Ahead of Saturday, Feaunati is looking forward to coming up against her countrywomen and Red Roses teammates.

“Obviously there's a bunch of Kiwi girls in there that I'm excited to play; I haven't really played them before, plus Meg Jones; they have class all around the pitch. I'm always excited to play, obviously, teammates that I know, and then, a few girls that are from overseas.”

She added: “Every game has been super tough, and it's just the nature of the PWR at the moment. This week’s game is exciting, and then obviously looking to the next couple of weeks, before we go on a break, we want to finish on a high.”

Tickets for Saturday’s game are just £11 for adults and £1 for 17s and under. They are available here.

Exeter Chiefs Women

15 Sabrina Poulin
14 Francesca Granzotto
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 Maddie Feaunati

16 Emily Tuttosi
17 Demi Swann
18 DaLeaka Menin
19 Abby Duguid
20 Zoë Dare
21 Eilidh Sinclair
22 Gabby Cantorna
23 Katie Buchanan