Team news: Wall to return to action after Achilles injury
Exeter Chiefs Women’s and Ireland lock Dorothy Wall will make her return from an Achilles injury after being selected on the bench for the game against Harlequins at Sandy Park on Sunday (KO 12:30).
The 25-year-old ruptured her Achilles tendon in Ireland’s Six Nations game against Scotland in April. It ruled her out of the Rugby World Cup but her return to play has been accelerated by the hard work she has put in during the seven-month rehabilitation programme.
Chiefs Women’s head coach Steve Salvin said: “I am not sure I have ever seen a player so committed to her rehab and returns ahead of schedule. We are absolutely delighted to welcome Dorothy back.”
Elsewhere in the team, Emily Tuttosi will start at hooker alongside fit-again Hope Rogers and fellow countrywoman DaLeaka Menin, whose performance last week saw her named the fans’ Player of the Match.
Menin scored two tries against her former side Loughborough Lightning but also topped the charts for offloads and was second in round three for defenders beaten.
On her team-mate, Tuttosi said: “Sometimes you will hear comments that she (Menin) is doing things a prop can’t do, but she is that dynamic, fit, fast, skilful forward that still crushes her role in the set-piece.
“Athletes like that are important, like Sarah Bern as well, with people saying, ‘Woah, she’s tearing up the midfield’ and ‘DaLeaka Menin, wow, how did she even get that ball?’; it’s so fun to see that number three jersey is not put in a box as it used to be.”
Black Fern prop Amy Rule is also back on the bench after picking up a minor injury two weeks ago. Flanker Zoe Dare returns among the replacements.
Wing Katie Buchanan will start the game on the opposite wing to Claudia Moloney-MacDonald, who made the most metres (330) in the PWR in round three, with Italy’s Francesca Granzotto on the bench along with USA Eagles’ centre Gabby Cantorna.
They will face a sixth-placed Quins team that will be eager to add to their one win so far this season while Chiefs will be looking to develop their new style of play.
Tuttosi added: “Quins is always a fun match…home or away. We’ve had some really close contests with them over the last few seasons. Between both sides, I just hope it is a strong, physical and exciting contest.”
Salvin continued: “We sort of started from scratch in terms of what we wanted to be as a group. We are naturally seeing a little lack of consistency in certain things that we are doing, but when we review the game, we see what is really working for us and what needs a little bit of adaption, so I think we are still finding our identity in terms of who we want to be and how we want to be perceived.
“We are getting improvements on a week-by-week basis in most areas. The exciting bit is that we are only scratching the surface of that improvement. I still think there is a huge amount of growth to come.”
This PWR round four game between Exeter Chiefs Women and Harlequins will kick-off 12:30 on Sunday. Tickets are just £11 for adults and £5.50 for U17s. They are available here.
Exeter Chiefs Women
15 Merryn Elworthy
14 Katie Buchanan
13 Nancy McGillivray
12 Alexandra Tessier
11 Claudia Moloney-MacDonald
10 Liv McGoverne
9 Flo Robinson (vc)
1 Hope Rogers
2 Emily Tuttosi
3 DaLeaka Menin
4 Linda van der Velden
5 Emily Robinson (c)
6 Gabriella Nigrelli
7 Maisy Allen (vc)
8 Maddie Feaunati
Replacements:
16 Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald
17 Demi Swann
18 Amy Rule
19 Dorothy Wall
20 Zoe Dare
21 Lucy Nye
22 Gabby Cantorna
23 Francesca Granzotto