Team news: Seven debuts await for Chiefs Women’s first game of the season

Exeter Chiefs Women will see three debutants take to the field to start their first game of the season against Leicester Tigers Women.

Welsh international hooker Carys Phillips, local talent and scrum-half Tilly Ryall and Olympian Deborah Wills will all run-out in Chiefs’ colours on Sunday as they enter the JAECOO Next Gen Cup following a bye week.

Four more debutants await on the bench with University of Exeter players Amelia Lambourn, Izzy Newnes-Smith and Frankie Welsher plus Exeter College product Honey Kerslake, all hoping to represent the U23s pathway programme.

The matchday 23 will see a first Chiefs start for prop Lilly Plowman who will pack down in the front row with Phillips and Alessia Skeates. Kate Smith and Lola
Whitley will form the second row with captain Emily Robinson and Zoë Dare
flanking No 8 Gabriella Nigrelli.

The half-back pairing sees Tilly Ryall return to her Devon roots at scrum-half and Merryn Elworthy start at fly-half. Liv McGoverne and Nancy McGillivray make up the centre partnership with Wills and Sammie Harris on the wings and Eilidh Sinclair at full-back.

The bench is loaded with young talent with Sofia Bekir Fuente, Hannah Sams, Eleanor Hing and Danielle Preece joining the potential debutants.

Taz Bricknell, Lucy Nye, Shya Pinnock and Amy Rule were all unavailable for selection.

It will be a debut game at head coach for Oli Bishop too after being promoted from assistant coach in the summer.

He said: “We’re 100% ready for the first game. Obviously, with round one a bye for us, we’ve got itchy feet and are ready to get on the pitch. The girls have performed really well for eight weeks. It's been a big pre-season, but a really useful one for us to, number one, embed some new players and embed some of our academy with our players that have been here for a couple of years to help rebuild our culture and help build our identity with our new players coming in.”

Like the PREM Rugby Cup for the men, the JAECOO Next Gen is all about developing English young players while the internationals are away on duty.

Bishop added: “There's some really exciting talent that's going to be coming through, including some of the youngsters that have been around for a bit with us, like Naomi Brennan and Dani Preece. They're going to have a huge opportunity to make an impact during this cup period along with our young forwards, Zoë, Lola and Kate.

“They’ll all have opportunities on the pitch, as well as Honey coming in from Exeter College. But then we bring in the likes of Ellie Wood, who has been up with us a couple of times before; she’ll get an opportunity. We've then got the likes of Izzy, Frankie, as well as a couple of others that will get some good game time.

“For them, it’s about experiencing what senior rugby in the PWR is like. Even though it's the cup competition, it's still very competitive and a great place to grow and develop.”

This new cohort will pit themselves against Leicester Tigers Women, who recruited well over the summer but had a tough result against Saracens last weekend.

Bishop continued: “The big thing is that there is a lot of the time between game one and game two…there is a big change. So, we're expecting to see a stronger Tigers side come out this week. They've recruited well. They've got players like Lagi (Tuima) from Quins who has huge amounts of experience internationally as well as PWR. She'll bring some really good direction to their game.

“Leicester are always physical. They’re always a tough team to break down. There will be opportunities and we'll be looking to take full advantage of that, but we know they're going to be a side that is going to work hard, is going to be physical, and doesn't give up for 80 minutes.”

With seasonal membership sales already at an all-time high for Chiefs Women, the team should expect a healthy crowd but would dearly love to see some of or even all of the fans that came to last weekend’s Red Roses game to come out more often to watch them.

Bishop concluded: “I'd love it to be full for the season! It would be great. One of the big reasons people come down here is that this is a rugby area. Chiefs are a huge part of this area, and we feel that. When the crowd's there, when they're shouting and supporting, it's huge for us. Everyone wants to have that fan base and it's something that we feel we do have and it would be great if we can get some of the girls and some of the supporters that came to that Red Roses game to come again to us. We're going to show some great attacking rugby and there'll definitely be some tries scored.”

Exeter Chiefs Women kick-off against Leicester Tigers Women at 13:00 on Sunday. Tickets for this Sunday’s game against Leicester Tigers Women at Sandy Park are just £12 for adults and £5.50 for U18s. Supporters can also get access to every women’s game this season (excluding progression games) with a seasonal membership for just £84 for adults and £38.50 for U18s.

Live updates will also be available from our match centre here.

Exeter Chiefs Women

15 Eilidh Sinclair
14 Sammie Harris
13 Nancy McGillivray
12 Liv McGoverne
11 Deborah Wills*
10 Merryn Elworthy (vc)
9 Tilly Ryall*
1 Lilly Plowman
2 Carys Phillips*
3 Alessia Skeates
4 Lola Whitley
5 Kate Smith
6 Emily Robinson (c)
7 Zoë Dare
8 Gabriella Nigrelli

16 Sofia Bekir Fuente
17 Hannah Sams
18 Amelia Lambourn*
19 Izzy Newnes-Smith*
20 Honey Kerslake*
21 Eleanor Hing
22 Danielle Preece
23 Frankie Welsher*

*debuts