Team news: Early Christmas gift for returner Hope Rogers
Hope Rogers has received an early Christmas gift after being called up to start tomorrow’s Allianz PWR game against Loughborough Lightning.
The full-on festive fan and USA Eagle prop has been unable to contribute to Chiefs’ season so far as she has been recovering from neck surgery. Before this season, Rogers played in 28 games for Chiefs and scored 28 tries.
Head coach Susie Appleby said: “It’s great to see Hope back. She is a wonderful player.”
Rogers is not the only change to the team with the coaching team awarding starting opportunities to Lizzie Hanlon, Eilidh Sinclair and Nichola Fryday as Chiefs continue to work towards a squad of 30 to 35 players that are ready to play at any time.
Appleby said: “Everyone is here to play rugby so there is no point them being in a training environment without them getting an opportunity.
“Lizzie Hanlon, for instance, is a young, up-and-coming tighthead and she’s going to get a start. DaLeaka (Menin) has been outstanding, but she understands that Lizzie needs to be given an opportunity and she is thoroughly supportive of that. The squad supporting each other is a massive thing for us in terms of the culture.
“It’s only a couple of changes and change is good. It does not mean people have been performing badly; we have just got to keep this squad playing and give people a chance.”
Despite the last-gasp loss of last weekend, there were positives to be taken with Alex Tessier becoming the first player to kick more than 500 metres in a match this season, and the first player to cross the 1,000-metre mark overall this season with 1,333 metres.
Claudia MacDonald, who misses this game with concussion, scored a brace of tries against Gloucester-Hartpury to make her the top try-scorer in the league with five so far.
Meanwhile, the two bonus points mean Chiefs Women still sit in second place in the table with Loughborough Lightening in fifth.
Appleby said: “Loughborough are a good side. They are very, very quick, skilful and have good physicality – same as every team really.
“We have just prepped for them as we would for every team. They have fantastic players, international players like Helena Rowland, who is unbelievable; Helen Nelson, who drove them around the field last weekend. So, we have looked at bits of them and then again switched focus back to us.”
Chiefs Women kick-off against Loughborough Lightning at 14:00 tomorrow at the cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens.
Exeter Chiefs Women
15 Merryn Doidge (cc)
14 Katie Buchanan
13 Kanako Kobayashi
12 Gabby Cantorna
11 Eilidh Sinclair
10 Alex Tessier
9 Brooke Bradley
1 Hope Rogers
2 Emily Tuttosi
3 Lizzie Hanlon
4 Linde van der Velden
5 Nichola Fryday
6 Harriet Millar-Mills
7 Maisy Allen
8 Rachel Johnson
Replacements:
16 Daisy French
17 Abby Middlebrooke
18 DaLeake Menin
19 Poppy Leitch (cc)
20 Edel McMahon
21 Maddie Feaunati
22 Mairi McDonald
23 Danielle Preece