New Premier 15s fixtures confirmed
By Mark Stevens
6/10/20
Exeter Chiefs Women will kick-off their first-ever season in the Allianz Premier 15s League with an away-day against Gloucester-Hartpury this Saturday (2:30pm).
Head coach Susie Appleby will return to her former club as the new-look Chiefs prepare for the first of 18 rounds of battle against the elite clubs in the English Women’s game.
Mirroring the men’s team, who started their top-flight adventure ten years ago against Gloucester, Appleby says there is a ‘real excitement’ amongst her group as they prepare to finally get their season underway.
In what have been testing times for everyone due to the Covid-19 outbreak, Appleby’s global search for talent has seen her recruit star names from all corners of the earth, as well as bringing together some of the Westcountry’s brightest emerging youngsters.
Now, they will all be pooled together in a Chiefs side looking to make their mark against established sides such as Harlequins, Saracens, Wasps, Worcester Warriors and Loughborough Lightning.
“This has been over a year in the making,” said Appleby. “When I decided to make the move from Gloucester-Hartpury, we were still playing, I was coaching a different team and then bang, it all changed so quickly. What has happened over that time, you couldn’t have written it, you couldn’t have imagined it!
“There have been lots of challenges, but we’ve tried to find the opportunities in those challenges. We’ve not been able to bring in some great players from around the world and combine them with some amazing local talent. For me, the chance to blend all of that together over these last eight, nine weeks has been brilliant.”
Although Appleby is happy to play it cool in terms of her seasonal expectations, she knows the Chiefs will be a ‘work in progress’ initially as she looks to establish the club as a growing force.
“We’ll take it one step at a time,” explained Appleby. “As it would happen, we’ve got Gloucester-Hartpury first up and that makes it very interesting in a lot of ways. That said, we have to focus on ourselves, we can’t focus on them too much. They’ve got a new coach, they’ve got different players and although we know a fair bit about them, we don’t know exactly how they are going to attack this season.
“We’re a brand new side, there’s lots of things we’ve got to do, but we’re looking forward to it. It won’t be perfect, we know that, but little by little we aim to grow.We’ve got some fantastic individuals, but it’s how cohesive can we be?
“At the end of the day, as coaches we’ve put in a framework we hope will be a good start point, now it’s up to the girls to go out and express themselves to be the best players they can be.”