University pathway glows green in the 2025/26 Super BUCS season
Exeter University’s Women may have lost to Hartpury University this week but the healthy pathway that feeds into Exeter Chiefs Women’s team was very much in evidence.
Eight of the 23 players who took to the field at the University’s Topsham Sports Ground had already pulled on the black jersey for Chiefs with plenty more bound to come through a system that includes Exeter College and Truro College but starts in junior clubs across the region.
Prop Lilly Plowman (below) is the epitome of a Chiefs Women’s pathway player having gone through Exeter College and is now in her second year at the University of Exeter, having made her Chiefs debut in the PWR Cup earlier this season.
She said: “I love university rugby. There is nowhere I would rather be than here, doing this, playing for BUCS week in, week out nearly. It’s a great challenge and as a pathway, it’s really testing. It’s incredible...the girls you meet and the girls you play against are a really, really high level.”
“BUCS is one of the best leagues in the world and it’s such an honour to play in. I have played against and with some people who are absolutely world class.”
However, the 20-year-old was disappointed with Exeter’s 17-29 loss to Hartpury.
The former Crediton RFC player added: “Today was a tough. We were really desperate for the win. Every time we meet Hartpury, it’s a real tight clash. To get the loss…we’re not happy about it, but it’s a game we can learn from.”
Captain and winger Eva Sterritt, also 20,was also frustrated with the loss but shared Plowman’s enthusiasm for the University’s rugby programme run by Exeter Chiefs’ first centurion Poppy Leitch
Sterritt said: “We knew before this fixture started that it was going to be an 80-minute battle and we maybe started to tune into that in the last quarter, but we really needed to come at it from the start, and we are facing the punishments of that today.
“It means absolutely everything to play for the University. I always say, this is where my heart is. It’s brilliant to come into the Chiefs pathway and make my debut, but coming back to these girls gives me a lot of pride and I enjoy running them out every week.”
University of Exeter Women’s 1st XV currently sit in third place in the Women’s BUCS Super Rugby league having already beaten teams from Brunel, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Loughborough universities this season. The University of Exeter also has a team in the RFU's Women's Championship South 1 league following promotion last season. They currently sit in fourth place following four wins out of seven. These games are played on Sundays.
The women in green travel to Cardiff Met on 26 November before heading to Brunel University on 10 December. There next home game is the University of Cardiff on 28 January with four rounds to play afterwards.
You can follow their progress via Instagram.
See below for the full interviews with Plowman and Sterritt.
