Zackary keen to build against champions

By James Fowler
14/1/23

Exeter Chiefs star  Kate Zackary says that she believes last week's victory over Sale Sharks will provide much needed momentum heading forward through the rest of the season.

Zackary has become a vital cog in the Chiefs armoury, with her versatility proving to be especially useful to Head Coach Susie Appleby. The player nicknamed 'Captain America' has once again been picked at outside centre for today's huge encounter with last season’s champions Saracens, despite having played so impressively in her more customary No.8 position last weekend.

Reflecting on the victory over Sale, Zackary spoke of her delight at coming away with all five points from a tough away fixture in what were extremely challenging weather conditions.

“It’s always nice to go away and spend an overnight bus trip up at Sale with the girls and come out with a big victory," she said. "Huge competitors going in against a team like Sale, they have that never give up attitude, and they’re a super challenging team for 80 minutes.”

“At the end of the day though we’re happy obviously to put a couple of tries over and see Jodie (Ounsley) cross the line and things like that, so super pumped for the team and looking forward to carrying that momentum into the rest of this year.”

With such strength in depth now available to the Chiefs coaches there comes enormous competition for places within the squad, and despite there inevitably being players disappointed not to get a chance to run out at the weekend, Zackary was keen to emphasise the positives with this problem.

“You always have some really tough selections, some people who miss out and who are disheartened, rightfully so, but it’s also the competition you want," added Zackary. "You want people constantly vying for a jersey, you just don’t want everyone thinking they have it in their bag, that creates complacency, and that’s one thing we definitely don’t have right now. We have people working 100% every day to earn the shirt come the weekend, and I think it’s a really good challenge and it’s a challenge we look forward to.”

Looking ahead to today’s game, Zackary spoke of her excitement at taking on the side that defeated the Chiefs in last season’s Premier 15s final, and Zackary added that she’s relishing the ‘head to head battle’ coming up.

“Really excited to see Saracens again. The last outing we had against them didn’t turn out in our favour in the final, so personally I’m just excited for that head to head battle again. It’s looks great to see all of their returning players and I think we’ll have quite a clash this week.”

Zackary was keen to emphasise that the focus this week has very much been on themselves, and Zackary believes that being able to adapt will be a key factor, especially considering the mixed weather forecast for Saturday.

“There will be some uncontrollables this week and you don’t know what the weather’s going to look like, so it’s just really focussing on what our game style looks like, whether it’s rain or shine. We know Sandy Park is a big pitch, it’s a fast pitch and it plays to our favour, especially with our strengths and our weaknesses, but more importantly if we need to we’ll go back through the forwards. Going into Saracens not much changes besides just being a little bit more clinical in some of our decisions.”