Appleby positive despite home defeat

‘’What a game of rugby,” she said. “That was a really good advert for the women’s game, for the product and the Premier 15s. I’m just sad that people weren’t here to watch.’’

The Chiefs, by Appleby’s own admission, took a while to get going, allowing Wasps scrum-half Macdonald to open the scoring. However, they grew into the match and Appleby was delighted with how her side stuck to task against highly-experienced opposition.

‘’It wasn’t perfect from the beginning. We took about 13/14 minutes to warm up, but then we got on it and we stayed on it for the duration of the half, which is really pleasing. The challenge now is to be on it from the beginning.

‘’I thought Gabby Cantorna was outstanding again, Kate Zackary phenomenal. The Spanish [Laura Delgado and Patricia Garcia], who have now just gone and got on a plane, were the same.So everything’s happening here, but the squad is feeling really good. The girls are feeling really positive, the energy is amazing and that’s where we want to be.’’

The match also saw a return to competitive action for Sachiko Katoh and Jennine Duncan, both of whom made a huge impact off the bench in the second half. Appleby, whilst admitting she wasn’t quite sure ‘’what [Jennine] was on’’ after a livewire return to action, was pleased with the impact of both:

‘’[It was] just brilliant to have those two back and the others really upped their game.’’

Whilst ultimately a freak bounce of the ball allowed Kildunne to score the game-sealing try, Appleby was still keen to look at the places her side could still improve.

‘’We had an opportunity when Ro Burnfield went in the bin to go for the penalty, but we tapped and played and we could’ve gone to the line[out] but had it come off it would’ve pushed us another score in front.’’

Despite Appleby choosing to look at the fine margins that meant the game slipped from her side’s grasp, she was still full of praise for ‘‘phenomenal player’’ Kildunne.

‘’She’s an Olympic athlete so you give her some space, she’s going to maximise her opportunity and that’s exactly what happened.’’

Having gone in at half-time level-pegging, Appleby felt her side weren’t quite as clinical in the second half. She added: “We took our opportunities in the first half, created them and took them. The difference in the second half was that we were positive, we were creating things, then we just lost our way.’’

Appleby will be hoping to build on a hugely encouraging showing next weekend against champions Saracens.

‘’We’ve got a few tweaks to make, but it’s not like we’re miles off. We’ve got some recovery to do, which is paramount. We’ll look at Sarries, we’ve already looked at them a little bit but we’ll have a proper good look at them and we’ll work out where we can get some opportunities out of the game.’’