Team news: Third plays fourth in round 10 of the PWR

Fourth-placed Exeter Chiefs Women will play third-placed Harlequins in the pick of the games in round 10 of the PWR.

For many players, this will be their first game in eight weeks after Chiefs’ bye week in December, a league-wide Christmas break, and a young squad selected for last weekend’s win over Leicester Tigers Women.

The front row sees Demi Swann come in at loosehead with Linde van der Velden lining up at lock in front of an unchanged back row.

Flo Robinson will start at scrum-half with Gabby Cantorna and Alex Tessier at inside and outside centre respectively.

Former Quins player Robinson said: “It's obviously three versus four. In the league, you've got Gloucester and Sarries who are pushing above everybody else and then you've got that middle four. I think that's the main reason why the game’s going to be so good. It’s a test to see where we are in the table to see if we can push into that third spot.”

As the closest PWR club to her hometown and where her sister Emily, now Chiefs captain, played for five years and who she lined up for in the 2023/24 season, it is a fixture Robinson looks forward to.

“It’s actually really nice playing against people that you know, and the Quins girls are a really nice group of people. I'm friends with lots of the girls that and they've got a good culture. It’s just fun to play against people that you know.”

Meanwhile, Ellen Scantlebury gets her first start for Chiefs on the wing with Italian international Francesca Granzotto at full-back.

The bench is loaded with experience with Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald, Hope Rogers and Amy Rule ready to make an impact in the front row. Abby Duguid will cover the second row. The rest of the 23 featured in last weekend’s game at Sandy Park and go into this game one point behind Quins.

Chiefs Women lead the Premiership in carries (1,226 metres), kick metres (4,924) and kicks in play (167) this season.

Fly-half Liv McGoverne has accumulated more kick metres than any other player with 2,606 this season and the most metres in round nine against Leicester Tigers Women. Flanker Maisy Allen is still the league’s leading tackler with 135 successful tackles.

Exeter Chiefs Women’s head coach Steve Salvin said: “It will be a very different challenge this weekend with Quins. They sit above us in the league, have evolved and developed their style of play and we've got to go to their ground and try and put a performance in. These are the games you look forward to.

“There is a perception about Quins that they play a high tempo, expansive brand of rugby. I think the reality with this Quins team is that they play territorially, they play direct, they play physical and they utilise their driving lineout. I think they've evolved into being a much tougher team.

“One or two players are not going to be the difference between us getting a result and not getting a result this weekend. It's going to be about 23 players over the course of 80 minutes being as efficient and effective and as cohesive as we possibly can.”

Exeter Chiefs will head to the Twickenham Stoop for Sunday’s game against Harlequins Women (KO 15:00). For any fans who cannot make the game, it is being shown live on TNT or you can get updates from the Live Commentary feature on the new Chiefs website.

Exeter Chiefs Women

15 Francesca Granzotto
14 Katie Buchanan
13 Alex Tessier
12 Gabby Cantorna
11 Ellen Scantlebury
10 Liv McGoverne
9 Flo Robinson
1 Demi Swann
2 Emily Tuttosi
3 DaLeaka Menin
4 Linde Van Der Velden
5 Dorothy Wall
6 Emily Robinson
7 Maisy Allen
8 Maddie Feaunati

16 Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald
17 Hope Rogers
18 Amy Rule
19 Abby Duguid
20 Zoë Dare
21 Lucy Nye
22 Nancy McGillivray
23 Eilidh Sinclair