Match Reaction - Susie Appleby
By James Fowler
12/3/23
Exeter Chiefs Women’s Head Coach Susie Appleby spoke of her delight at how much her squad has grown over the course of the season – with today’s 52-14 victory over Sale Sharks extending their winning run to an incredible 13 games.
Another healthy Sandy Park crowd of just over 1,000 watched the table-topping Chiefs run in tries through Ebony Jefferies, Lori Cramer, DaLeaka Menin, Claudia MacDonald, Emily Tuttosi, Merryn Doidge and Nichola Fryday (2).
Reflecting on her side’s performance, Appleby was keen to praise the efforts of the whole squad in helping put the Chiefs into such a strong position at the top of the Allianz Premier 15s table with just four league fixtures remaining.
“When you look back to the very start, 19th November I think it was when we kicked off against Gloucester-Hartpury and lost, if you had given us what came next I think we would have taken it with two hands,” said Appleby. “We’ve really grown as a squad, and that’s a big squad of 50, not just the guys that get to go out on the field on a Saturday, so I’m really pleased.”
One of the key features of the Chiefs attack throughout the season has been the partnership that Liv McGoverne and Gabby Cantorna have created, with either player seemingly able to slot in at first receiver, and Appleby spoke about how well they work together to manage the Chiefs potent attack.
“They’ve got a good feel for each other, they’ve got good intuition. It wasn’t perfect, but it’s a good step forward, and now the challenge is we don’t go back on the field in the league for many, many weeks, so it’s going to be a challenge.”
The Chiefs forwards pack produced yet another exceptional display with the set-piece really making life difficult for the Sharks throughout the entire 80 minutes.
“We probably weren’t as good as last week, but it was hard to match the emotional intensity that we had to bring last week,” said Appleby. “Again, Hope (Rogers), DaLeaka (Menin) and Emily (Tuttosi) were excellent. Nic (Fryday), Rachel (Johnson) again just phenomenal players doing great things, so it’s really pleasing.”
Yellow cards for both McGoverne and Dutch forward Linde Van Der Velden meant the Chiefs were forced to play with 14 players for periods of the game, but Appleby spoke of how good an experience it was in learning how to manage a game when down a player.
“I haven’t seen it myself (the McGoverne yellow card), it was a head on head but low level, so if that’s the case then quite rightly yellow card. The other one was errors and decision-making that put us under pressure that led to multiple offences and Linde (Van Der Velden) ends up in the bin. It’s not ideal, but we came through the situation and in the first one we scored.
“These are situations that are good experience for us, it’s not nice, it happens, but we’ve got to get through these times.”
The pick of the tries came from Doidge, who was playing in the less familiar position of the right wing, rather than her more accustomed full-back role, and Appleby was quick to praise the efforts of the Cornish speedster.
“Merryn’s a really special player, doing really well in the backfield at 15, but we wanted to give Lori a good run today, but Merryn does really well wherever she goes, but yeah lovely try, very much took it onto herself and off she went and did it.”
The Chiefs have been somewhat hindered this week in their preparations with a stomach bug going around the squad, and Appleby was understandably delighted with how her team performed considering the effects the illness took on the players.
“We’ve had about seven down with the bug and it was all at different times of the week so it hasn’t been ideal prep, but they’ve all got back on their feet and they’re strong players and they’re strong people, so we’ve done alright in the end.”
The domestic season will now take a break and may of the Chiefs players will join up with their respective international sides, however Appleby reflected that her focus will very much be with the remaining members of the squad, as they prepare for the Allianz Cup semi-final against Bristol Bears next month.
“There’s going to be some attritional stuff that goes on no doubt, we’ve got so many players going away to U20s, England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, America, Canada, we wish them all well and hope they come back raring and ready to go, but we’ve got a cup to win in the interim period.”