Chiefs Women to face Harlequins
By James Fowler
3/3/23
Steve Salvin insists it’s still ‘business as usual’ for his Exeter Chiefs Women’s side ahead of tomorrow’s ‘Big Game 14’ clash with Harlequins in the Allianz Premier 15s at Twickenham (2:30pm).
Although deliberately trying not talk up what will no doubt be a fabulous occasion and atmosphere at the home of English rugby for his players, Assistant Coach Salvin admitted that there has been an extra ‘buzz’ around this match due to where it is being played.
“We are treating it like a normal match week, but I think there is a bit of a natural buzz around it just because we know that we are at Twickenham and it is an iconic stadium and you might only get one chance in your lifetime to play there,” he said. “So, we haven’t talked it up or talked about it in any great detail with the girls because I don’t think we need to, because I think they’re all conscious of who we’re playing and where we’re playing.”
“Yeah we’re embracing it and we’re going to try and thrive in that environment, but it’s not been a topic of conversation in terms of meetings with the players.”
Looking back at last weekend’s comprehensive 45-5 victory over Loughborough Lightning at Sandy Park, Salvin says that although he was frustrated with certain aspects of the performance at the time, on reflection he feels there were many positives to take away from the victory.
“When I did the interview after the game I did feel a little bit frustrated that the performance wasn’t quite where we wanted it to be, but it’s interesting we were better when I watched it back,” he added. “I think maybe when you take the emotion out of it and you sit and watch it in your living room on a laptop and you think about the things you prepped for, the performance was actually better on the Sunday in my living room than it was on the Saturday at Sandy Park.
“Having said that, there were things we felt we could improve on, and we did have one or two issues with the line-out still, nothing that’s not fixable and in the grand scheme of things actually statistically we weren’t particularly bad, we just know we can be better. So it’s not a bad place to be to beat a side as good as Loughborough as well as we did knowing that we’ve still got room for improvement.”
Salvin says he’s expecting ‘high emotion’ from Harlequins tomorrow, as they look to put a marker down in what is no doubt the marquee event for their club. The home side will also be fully aware of how important the points will be, especially as they chase a play-off spot come the end of the regular season.
“High emotion I think will be the first thing that’s probably going to come at us,” continued Salvin. “I think the first 20 minutes there’s probably going to be some fireworks, because both teams will be very conscious of where they are in terms of being at Twickenham, so that will lift them in terms of their emotional output. But even if we were playing them at the Stoop, or their training ground or wherever it might be, they are a quality side and they are very powerful with their scrum and their maul, so I think for you to compete with Quins you have to manage that area first and foremost.
“They’ve also got some unbelievable pace, when they’ve got players like Abbie Dow and Ellie Kildunne in the back three you know if they get space on the edges you know they’ve got the quality to expose any gaps that you give them, so we know we’ve got to be rock solid defensively and we’ve got to score points.
“We’ve got to be good in all areas to win this game at the weekend, otherwise we’ll probably come up a little bit short, but we have to be mindful of the fact that we’re going pretty well at the moment and we are a good side, most areas of our game our functioning pretty well and if we turn up in the right spot emotionally and we put a performance together we are a very difficult side to beat.”
There is just one more fixture for the Chiefs before the league takes a break for the Women’s Six Nations Championship, which has been given a great deal of attention this week on the various international squad announcements. Indeed, Salvin was keen to emphasise how proud he is that so many of the Chiefs squad have been called up to their respective international side’s.
“It’s amazing. I think the one that probably put the biggest smile on my face is Poppy (Leitch). She’s been involved in that programme before and I think if you were to ask her last week does she ever expect to get capped by England again or even get called up, I don’t think she ever did, but the thing that’s got her selected is her performance, she has been exceptional, and if you play exceptionally week in, week out and you have the right level of experience, then you deserve to get called up. She fully deserves that call up.”
“Likewise to see Tricky (Edel McMahon) and Nic (Nichola Fryday) and Clara (Nielson) get called up for Ireland and Abbie (Fleming) and Rob (Wilkins) representing Wales and then we’ve got the North American crew as well. It shows the huge amount of diversity in our squad, but it also makes us realise how lucky we are to have this squad of players, because even though they are so diverse and eclectic, in a weird way it just seems to work when you put them together. So really pleased for those girls, but as I said the one that probably put the biggest smile on my face was Poppy (Leitch).”
