Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

A few learnings from this opening block of PWR fixtures

EXETER, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 10: Taylor Perry of Exeter Chiefs and Krissy Scurfield of Loughborough Lightning pose for a photo following the Allianz Premiership Women's Rugby match between Exeter Chiefs and Loughborough Lightning at Sandy Park on November 10, 2024 in Exeter, England. (Photo by Harry Trump/Getty Images)

24 matches played. 215 tries scored (mostly by Millie David). 7,455 tackles completed. 1,147 defenders beaten (again – see Millie Whizz).

ADVERTISEMENT

Some truly edge-of-your-seat clashes, heart-in-mouth moments, and drop-your-popcorn instances of virtuosic ‘phwoar’.

This opening block of the PWR has been glorious, and – bonus – educational. For those interested, here’s a little of what I’ve learned.

Canadians are the PWR’s hottest property right now

Alysha Corrigan’s hustle and Julia Omokhuale’s tackling. Gabby Senft’s athleticism and Sabrina Poulin’s pace. The wheels on Krissy Scurfield, and Emma Taylor’s ability to get her breath back after smashing six consecutive rucks, lead the try celebrations, and then slot an insouciant conversion with the most “Who – me?” of approaches. The sheer class of DaLeaka Menin. They’re all rock stars.

Video Spacer

‘This Energy Never Stops’ – One year to go until the Women’s Rugby World Cup

With exactly one year to go until Women’s Rugby World Cup England 2025 kicks off
in Sunderland, excitement is sweeping across the host nation in anticipation of what
will be the biggest and most accessible celebration of women’s rugby ever.

Register now for the ticket presale

Video Spacer

‘This Energy Never Stops’ – One year to go until the Women’s Rugby World Cup

With exactly one year to go until Women’s Rugby World Cup England 2025 kicks off
in Sunderland, excitement is sweeping across the host nation in anticipation of what
will be the biggest and most accessible celebration of women’s rugby ever.

Register now for the ticket presale

It’s not just the Canadians’ output, though – it’s their input. Ask any of the coaches or players about the impact their resident maples are having, and they just beam – before waxing lyrical about individuals with the mindsets of tigers but the hearts of Care Bears – and it’s thrilling how many people also reckon they’ll be in that World Cup final.

Leicester Tigers finished eighth last year

Next up: a revelation which both stunned and infuriated.

Tigers, it transpires, didn’t actually finish bottom of the log in 2024 – which you might have believed from how the table looked at the end of the campaign, or our commentary during this season’s opener.

In fact, Sale Sharks were docked additional points for failing to meet EQP requirements – and so it was the Northerners who trailed in ninth.

That’s not the issue here, though: the issue is that there was no press release about this. No communication whatsoever from the league themselves – who decided this wasn’t worthy of a missive, and only amended the table this autumn.

ADVERTISEMENT

Speaking to players, coaches, and other journalists – no one had the foggiest, which is not only maddening, but speaks to a wider issue around the league itself.

Related

We learned after said opening round that the PWR’s CEO was departing her post immediately – but not why, nor what was meant by ‘leadership transition’. The statement was a meagre 132 words long – none of which came from Moore herself – and it’s deeply concerning that such drastic changes are happening right as we embark upon a season which culminates in a home World Cup.

The PWR needs to be poised to capitalise on that tournament – the expression ‘2025 ready’ has been trotted out frequently since the competition’s rebrand – but it’s hard to feel confident in that when it’s without a CEO, a title sponsor, or the ability to communicate something as fundamental as a change to its final standings.

Trailfinders are fun

From the ridiculous to the sublime: round five was when I caught Trailfinder fever.

A few hours in Ealing to ‘observe’ training and get some commentary prep done turned into an evening truly immersed in the newbies’ patch – and getting a proper feel for what this group are about.

ADVERTISEMENT

Barney Maddison – without hesitating – said that ‘of course’ I could sit in on their team meeting; Brooke Bradley and Liz Crake could not have been warmer or more insightful company on the touchlines; and sitting cross-legged in and amongst the green and purple-clad masses as they finished things off with their habitual Tuesday nightcap of hamstring work was just joyful.

Related

I was regaled with tales of a fancy dress social down in Exeter – Rowena Burnfield and Abby Dow as Miss Trunchbull and Amanda Thripp was inspired – and a genuinely global squad shared how they’ve celebrated Thanksgiving, Burns Night, and other cultural traditions together over the past year or so.

Grace White talked me through her latest tattoos, before Dow saw me out – not before asking my ‘go-to fight move’… (Hers, because I know you’re wondering, is a roundhouse kick.)

Trailfinders aren’t unique in this – it’s rare to leave a PWR environment without a pep in your step – but it was properly infectious stuff, and you can see it in their rugby. With foots pressed flat to the floor, they’re searing and instinctive – and celebrate like Catherine wheels. Expect them to be pushing for playoffs before too long.

We’ve finally got a proper top-four race again

Speaking of which: how exciting is this? These infuriating bye weeks mean that the table is currently about as useful as a Play-Doh hammer, but there are genuinely seven teams in the mix for a semi-final, and the margins will be as narrow as the gap Emma Sing needs to make you look silly in defence.

There are some sumptuous match-ups taking place over the final four rounds, when Quins will have a massive say in what goes down. Their last quartet of the regular season? Sarries, Chiefs, Bears, and The Circus. A) ouch B) what power they wield.

You want these things to end with a burn-up – and that should definitely be the case in 2025, when tickets to the playoffs will be getting booked at the very, very last minute.

WXV is going to affect this season in such a lot of ways

As Nathan Smith put it in the week – ‘it feels like we haven’t really got started yet,’ but – unfortunately for Lightning – we have. WXV’s scheduling meant that the league’s stars were literally oceans away as the premiership kicked off, before swathes of athletes returned injured or – to quote Sean Lynn – ‘absolutely toast.’

Related

This shaped the opening few rounds, and – given how tight the tussle for top four is going to be – will therefore affect who’s left standing – in every sense.

In this concertinaed season, coaches are quick to tell you about the vast amounts of work going on to mitigate its consequences for their athletes’ bodies and minds.

Alex Austerberry’s practically got his backroom staff sleeping at their desks by a supercomputer up in North London, so keen is he to get as many of his players as possible to a potentially career-defining World Cup – and Chiefs’ new S&C coach Liam McStay has been meticulously crafting programmes for each of Exeter’s stars – so that they’re held together by something more than duct tape, come the business end of it all.

We will see injuries as a result of unprecedented fatigue this year, and there will be at least one team whose campaign ends on February 22nd – wondering what might have been if their fixtures had fallen differently: if a few key clashes had landed further from those autumnal tests.

It’s going to be a spectacular season – perhaps the best ever – but there’s certainly room for improvement in the calendar department.

We’re so lucky with the good people at our clubs

This could be a column in and of itself, but – in no particular order – here are just a few standouts: Pat Lam, given next-to-no notice that we were going to interview him live on TNT, speaking with such warmth and knowledge about Bears’ women; Gloucester-Hartpury having their university side in for preseason, and giving those youngsters a tantalising taste of top table stuff.

Saracens pushing the boundaries with their live streams – Harry Scott-Munro working like a demon to craft ambitious and colourful programming before pelting up to commentary to call the matches himself.

Related

Tigers hustling, like – well – tigers, to ‘skim the cream of the Championship crop’ this summer, and unearth diamonds like Leah Heath, or provide historic moments like Zee Alema’s try. Susie Appleby and Nathan Smith both visibly emotional at full-time this Sunday at Sandy Park – two deeply passionate individuals at opposing ends of a scoreline.

Speaking of which – congratulations to Nathan and Sarah [Hunter], who welcomed the beautiful baby Olivia into the world last month. Appleby briefly hijacked her own press conference in the week to express her delight for the young family. ‘It’s amazing,’ she reflected. ‘And it puts things in perspective – because that’s the real bit. That’s what it’s really all about.’

Perfectly put. The 80 minutes matter, but the humans involved matter more.

I’m only getting soppier with age.

I cried – like, tears-spilling-over cried – at the wonderful Nancy McGillivray’s intercept score on her return from a 17-month injury odyssey. Don’t laugh: I know you did, too.

Women’s Rugby World Cup England 2025 tickets application phase is now open! Apply now.

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

2 Comments
A
AG 1 day ago

Excellent. While nothing gets the pulse going like a hammer and tongs game that runs right to the wire, reading your articles generally gets me fired up!

C
Chris929 7 days ago

great article claire(as always). I do sometimes think the womens rugby media hides away from the fact crowds continue to be disappointing despite the growth of the red roses/ the PWR rebranding. Sale/Leicester/Ealing in particular very poor and even quins/exeter down on couple of seasons ago. There is talk of wanting the PWR to be a fully pro league but unless the number of paying customers improves that just wont ever happen. What are the strategies to try to increase crowds?

There are also issues about EQP. Have the league given up on them? We all want to see the likes of sophie de goede,hope rogers,emma orr and alex callender in the league but its also imperative young emerging english talent is getting regular gametime. Right now while England are number 1 it perhaps doesnt matter but it will impact in the coming years if it continues .Too many teams have too many non -english players.Exeter,top of the league had 5 english starters in their 15 last weekend, 8 in their 23.other clubs like quins below the EQP levels(unless rules have changed this season?). Its getting the balance and right now its not quite right.

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

286 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Despite defeat in Paris, the real reason the All Blacks are feeling upbeat Despite defeat in Paris, the real reason the All Blacks are feeling upbeat
Search