Sixteen Exeter Chiefs Women head to WXV

Exeter Chiefs are providing 16 players from seven different unions to take part in the WXV pool matches being played across the world starting this week.

The World Rugby competition kicks off on Friday, September 27, followed by Sunday’s WXV 1 opener of the USA Eagles versus the Red Roses in Vancouver, potentially featuring five Exeter Chiefs Women. Maddie Feaunati is hoping for selection for England while Gabby Cantorna, Charli Jacoby, Rachel Johnson and Hope Rogers will be aiming to run out for the USA.

WXV 1 is being played in Canada’s British Columbia province featuring the six top teams in the world with Canada, France, Ireland and New Zealand making up the rest of the pool.

Exeter Chiefs will also be represented by Ireland’s captain Edel McMahon and international team-mates Cliodhna Moloney and Dorothy Wall while four players could potentially feature in the Canadian jersey: DaLeaka Menin, Taylor Perry, Alex Tessier and Emily Tuttosi.

The WXV 2 pool matches are being played in Cape Town, South Africa, with Kanako Kobayashi on duty for Japan, Lori Cramer for Australia and Mairi McDonald for Scotland.

WXV 3 will welcome the Netherlands for the first time, featuring Chiefs lock and current Dutch captain Linde van der Velden, with their pool matches being played in Dubai.

The WXV competition was launched last year to accelerate the growth of the women’s game by providing more competitive matches for the unions to take part in. This year’s competition offers the added excitement of six Women’s Rugby World Cup (WRWC) places being up for grabs.

The teams in WXV 1 have already qualified for the WRWC along with Asia Rugby Women's Championship winners Japan, Oceania Rugby Women's Championship title-holders Fiji, and Brazil, the winners of the Sudamerica play-off.

The final six spots will go to the highest finishing WXV teams who have not yet qualified.

van der Velden will be hoping her team will be able to secure one of these spots. She said: "Having qualified for WXV earlier this year, the Netherlands now have an opportunity to try to make a World Cup for the first time since 2002. It would mean so much to me if we could progress, but I know this will not be an easy task with other teams all fighting for the same goal. I am excited to see how we perform in a large international competition."

Meanwhile, WXV 1 hosts Canada go into the tournament with a Pacific Nations Four series win under their belts.

Tuttosi said: “I am hoping we are going to have some big games in front of record-breaking crowds. It’s really exciting having our squad back together with athletes from 15s and sevens mixing up to showcase our evolving style of rugby in front of a home crowd. We’re just really thankful to be playing some more test match rugby as it’s going to be a big year leading up to the World Cup.”

The WXV competition overlaps the new 2024/25 PWR season by two weekends, which means the internationals will return to their clubs before the weekend of October 19/20 when Exeter Chiefs Women play current champions Gloucester-Hartpury away.

Exeter Chiefs Women’s head coach Susie Appleby said: “It is great to see so many of our players featuring in the second year of this competition and while we will miss them for the first two rounds, all the other PWR clubs will be in the same position.

“Supporters will then be able to watch these international stars line-up alongside their club team-mates in the PWR. The league is stacked with quality players from across the world that will go toe to toe to gain success in our domestic competition but to also to benefit from valuable, high-level game-time to prepare themselves for the Women’s Rugby World Cup at the end of the season.

“The English rugby fan really is very fortunate in be able to see these players in action virtually on their doorstep. You need not look too much further than Sandy Park for offering a full array of international and domestic talent to inspire and entertain supporters in equal measure.”

WX1 and 2 matches are being broadcast live on BBC iPlayer and WXV 3 on RugbyPass TV so fans can stay up to date with all the action and the Exeter Chiefs Women taking part in the competition.