Chiefs side to face DMP Sharks
By James Fowler
3/2/23
Exeter Chiefs Women’s Assistant Coach Steve Salvin says that despite the difference in league positions between the two sides, he’s expecting ‘a big challenge’ from the bottom-placed Darlington Mowden Park Sharks, when they visit Sandy Park tomorrow (12pm).
The Chiefs marked the halfway point in the regular league season with a dominant 84-0 victory over Wasps last Saturday, a result which was the Chiefs eight bonus point victory in a row.
Despite the marked difference in form between the two sides, Salvin is still wary of the threats DMP will bring, especially considering some of the recent signings they have made.
“They’ve obviously had an influx of some really top-drawer players and we’ve seen that in the preview we’ve done prior to this game, there’s clearly an additional element of quality running through their team now,” he said.
“In the Harlequins game last weekend, they gave Quins some real trouble in lots and lots of areas, so we expect a big challenge this weekend.”
Reflecting on some of the positive results the Chiefs have produced in recent weeks, Salvin spoke of how delighted he has been with the level of performance, both in attack and defence.
“The Saracens and Bristol games were great performances and great scorelines, but in the moment you feel like it’s a real battle because that’s exactly what it is,” explained Salvin.
“When we’re reflecting on these games, we are seeing a huge amount of positives both sides of the ball, so we’re scoring some excellent tries. We also seem to be doing a really good job of stopping opposition teams from scoring tries against us and, hopefully, we can continue to do it.
“We do, however, recognise the threat that comes at us every week, be it Darlington, be it Wasps, be it Saracens or Bristol. Everyone is capable of scoring tries and everyone’s capable of stopping you playing, so we have to be right on it every week.”
With so many players impressing in both games and in training, there comes a huge amount of selection dilemmas for Salvin and Head Coach Susie Appleby to manage, and Salvin spoke of how much of a challenge this has been.
“We have to manage that side of it as best we possibly can and that is challenging at times, because we’ve got some really, competitive people and that drives the standards in training,” said Salvin. “That said, competitive people generally want to play week in, week out, and obviously there’s certain players who aren’t getting that opportunity at the moment, so we are doing our very best to manage the squad so that everyone is getting a reasonable amount of game time. The challenge there is making sure we keep consistent performances while we are making changes to the team.
“But what’s really evident in terms of the quality of the squad is the quality of training that’s going on. The unit sessions that we’re having, the 15 v 15 stuff that we’re doing it’s just immensely competitive, so it’s really driving standards through the week, but at the moment that’s transferring onto the field.”
There is no doubting what a talented squad Salvin and Appleby now have at their disposal, with so many world class players amongst their ranks to choose from, however Salvin was keen to praise the ‘special group’ whom he believes have created a hugely welcoming environment for new players arriving into the club.
“We’ve got a special group,” he continued. “We’ve got an immensely talented group of rugby players, but I think we’ve got some wonderful people as well, and how welcoming and inviting the players who were already here have been to the new girls coming in it’s a really ice thing to see. We’re really fortunate that we’ve got some excellent rugby players but they’re better people than they are rugby players and that makes for a really good squad environment.”
Despite going into tomorrow’s clash with DMP as heavy favourites, Salvin spoke of the challenges he is expecting the team from Durham to bring.
“We’re expecting physicality, that’s something they bring in spades. There’s certain elements of their attack, particularly around their set-piece attack that’s really difficult to defend so you’ve got to be right on it there.
“They have that thing in them where they just fight continually, and that in itself is a huge compliment that they’re prepared to fight for 80 minutes, so as I said we know we’ve got to be on it this weekend to get a result.”
Tomorrow’s fixture also marks the end of a five-game block which began with the trip to Sale at the beginning of January, and Salvin spoke of how keen he is to finish this block on a high.
“All being well if we get the result that we hope we get, it will have been a really positive block of games. We knew it was a hugely challenging period of games post-Christmas, so we’ve ticked four of them off so far, all being well if we get the right level of emotion and the right level of performance, we get a result this weekend and then we can sign off the last five weeks. After that, the girls can have a little bit of a break before we do it all again.”
