Loughborough Lightning v Exeter Chiefs Women

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Exeter Chiefs Women

15 Merryn Elworthy
14 Francesca Granzotto*
13 Nancy McGillivray
12 Alexandra Tessier
11 Claudia Moloney-MacDonald
10 Liv McGoverne
9 Flo Robinson (vc)
1 Demi Swann
2 Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald
3 DaLeaka Menin
4 Linde van der Velden
5 Abby Duguid
6 Emily Robinson (c)
7 Maisy Allen (vc)
8 Maddie Feaunati

Replacements:
16 Emily Tuttosi
17 ⁠Alessia Skeates*
18 Abby Middlebrooke
19 ⁠Gabriella Nigrelli
20 ⁠Lola Whitley*
21 ⁠Lucy Nye
22 Naomi Brennan
23 Katie Buchanan

*denotes PWR debut

Loughborough Lightning

15 Lia Green
14 Bulou Mataitoga
13 Alev Kelter
12 Carmela Morrall
11 Bo Westcombe-Evans
10 Helen Nelson
9 Lis Maude

1 Anne Young
2 Kathryn Treder
3 Mae Sagapolu
4 Lilli Ives Campion
5 Haineala Lutui
6 Tahlia Brody
7 Sadia Kabeya
8 Daisy Hibbert-Jones ©

Replacements:
16 Lucy Calladine
17 Isla Curphey
18 Christine Belisle
19 Becky Boyd
20 Rachel Ehrecke
21 Kendall Waudby
22 Megan Davey
23 Fancy Bermudez

I think this might be close but also think our forwards will be strong enough to secure plenty of good possession. Also think our girls will be keen to start better than last week, so, LL 17 - 24 Chiefs.

Loughborough 25 Chiefs 30

Weather showery and some breeze so tricky conditions. Important the girls back up last weeks second half performance. Glad Tessier in the centre and hope Flo is back to form after last week in the first half. Loughborough 18 Chiefs 34

Could go either way l think
Lightning 19 - 24 Chiefs W

Loughborough 14 : Chiefs 28

In Rob we trust.
By the way - cream on first. There's nothing to debate.

I suspect it’ll be close and LL have some talented names in their line up, but I think we’ll just shade it as long as we start well.
LL 19; Chiefs 24

LL. 21 - 36 Chiefs

Lightning 17 Chiefs 31

LL 33 - 33 Chiefs . A game we could've and perhaps should've won but 3 points is good for an away game.

Too many errors in the first Half. Not sure we deserved the win as one of our tries a bit suspect Scrum time could easily have had some more pens.. 3 points away is OK

Messy as hell first half, improved in the second half but credit to Loughborough for coming back. Satisfactory enough result for now.

Another draw at Franklin's Gardens that we came within inches of winning, albeit a very different type of game. Loughborough Lightning played better than I expected, while Chiefs played somewhat below my expectations. This was a game that we should have won and, but for a knock-on on their try line in the 80th minute, we would have won.
It was a good effort by LL, their 10 kicked very well in open play which kept them playing in the right part of the pitch. By contrast, I felt that Liv McGoverne or Alex Tessier could have kicked a bit more when it was clear that we were struggling to make headway with the ball in hand. Our backline looked pretty clunky, too often passing the ball in frantic desperation rather than as part of a slick attacking move. Claudia M-M had some excellent runs down the wing and was unlucky not to have made it over the line in the first half. I was impressed by Abby Duguid. She looked very strong in the carry and delivered an epic hand-off, but it was sad to see Linde vdV go off with a head injury - hopefully she's ok, butI suspect she'll be out of the reckoning for a while. Our two props, Demi and DaLeaka both put in a mighty shift, playing the full game. We didn't use either of our less experienced substitute props and in that respect we missed having Amy Rule and Hope Rogers on the team sheet. Nevertheless, it's pretty impressive to see a prop who's been on the pitch for 78 minutes charge nearly half the length of the field with the ball. I don't think we capitalised fully on our advantage at scrum time. Rather than keeping the ball at Maddie's feet and going for a secondary shove, Flo tended to whip the ball out as soon as it was available. To their credit, the LL driving maul was very well organised and we struggled to deal with it, and their tighthead prop was a veritable wrecking ball, blasting through the middle of our defence on several occasions.
When the final whistle blew the LL fans were overjoyed, partly from relief that we'd fluffed our chance of getting a winning score, but also partly, I suspect, because they thought a draw was a good result for them. As a Chiefs fan, though, I felt a little deflated.

We're not very good at this

Certainly a statement there, Ouch, and not a question!!

In Rob we trust.
By the way - cream on first. There's nothing to debate.