Match Reaction - Steve Salvin

By Harry Scott-Munro
19/2/22

Exeter Chiefs Women's coach Steve Salvin was reflective at full-time as his side were forced to settle for a point from a gutting 28-25 defeat away at Loughborough Lightning in the Allianz Premier 15s.

For large parts of the second half, the Chiefs dominated the collision zone, securing a 25-14 lead through tries from Kate Zackary, Liv Jones and Hope Rogers, while Meg Foster added ten points from the tee.

Loughborough though, are a side that refuse to be beaten and they rallied, bagging two converted Sadia Kabeya scores late on to seal the victory, after first half scores from Charli Jacoby and Fran Goldthorp.

Whilst disappointed, Salvin was left feeling proud of his side’s performance at Franklin's Gardens.

“Everyone’s disappointed, but there were a lot more positives than negatives. For 70 minutes today, we were absolutely outstanding,” he explained. “The frustration is that the errors we made were skill-based errors, but those things can happen in a high-pressure game.”

Salvin was quick to credit the performance of their opponents and challenged his side to channel the disappointment of the result into next week’s clash with Worcester Warriors.

“Loughborough are a good side. We knew coming here today that it was potentially going to be the type of game that would be decided in the final few minutes and that’s exactly what happened. We’re disappointed with the result, but that’s sport. Going into Worcester next week, we need to brush ourselves down and play like we did for those 70 minutes today for the full 80.”

Reflecting on the small margins that ultimately cost his side, Salvin felt that the basic skill-set from his side could have been better, but accepted that mistakes happen in a high-pressure game such as this one.

“I think the one area we could have been better today was our skill execution, but you’re always under massive pressure when playing a side of this quality. We probably gave up one too many turnovers so there’s that to think about. But the positives massively outweigh the negatives.”

Despite the result, this was still a hugely promising performance from the Chiefs and one that Salvin described as “the best we’ve played since I’ve been at the club.”

“For 35 minutes in that second half, they were just outstanding. There were one or two errors at the end, but that’s part of high-pressure sport. It’s one of those where it’s about how you react,” Salvin noted. “Fortunately for Loughborough and unfortunately for us, it hasn’t gone the way we wanted today, but when you’re trying to get into the top four, it’s never going to be easy. We’ll dust ourselves down and use the frustration from today to build into Worcester.”

Even though the victory slipped away, this could still prove to be a valuable point on the road in the context of the play-off race. Salvin was again at pains to highlight the positives from the game, and a performance that he saw as a “huge step in the right direction.”

“Time will tell. It’s a really valuable five points for them today but it could end up being a valuable point for us, only time will tell. We got five valuable points away at Gloucester a couple of weeks ago, so we’ll see where we are come the business end of the season,” he highlighted.

Salvin made sure to note that the positivity from the performance and the pain of the defeat would be what would drive his side, heading into the final four rounds of the season.

“The message we have to get across today is that for long periods, we were absolutely outstanding. We came unstuck a bit at the end, but we had periods today where we were the best we’ve been. We’ll prep for Worcester equally as thoroughly as we did for today and if we get that preparation right building into that, we give ourselves the best possible chance of winning.”