‘Gloucester took a mile on us’ – Emily Tuttosi reflects on ‘tough’ Premier 15s final defeat

By her own admission, Emily Tuttosi has had little time to ruminate on the heartache of a second successive Premier 15s final defeat.

Less than 24 hours after Lisa Neumann put the seal on Gloucester-Hartpury’s title win at ‘Queensholm’, Tuttosi and her Exeter Chiefs team-mates boarded an open-top bus to celebrate a season in which they also mounted a successful Allianz Cup defence.

Two coaches ferried the club’s men’s and women’s players to Exeter Guildhall, but Tuttosi and fellow Canadians Daleaka Menin and Gabrielle Senft were unable to fully let loose at the Civic Reception.

Early the following morning, the trio were sat on another bus – this one featuring a roof – which took them to London and a transatlantic flight to Canada, to join up with their national team ahead of the conclusion of the World Rugby Pacific Four Series 2023.

“The final was tough, for sure, and with such a tight turnaround there was not much time to dwell on it,” Tuttosi tells RugbyPass. “But it’s always exciting coming back with this group. From staff down to players, it’s a real privilege to be part of.”

Her mind might be focused on the challenge of Test rugby, and the prospect of playing New Zealand in front of a record crowd in Ottawa, but that does not mean back-to-back final defeats have not left a mark.

Tuttosi’s fourth try of the season had helped to edge her side into the lead after half an hour, but it was one they held for less than five minutes as Gloucester-Hartpury emulated Saracens in beating Exeter to the championship.

“It definitely hurt,” Tuttosi says. “The first year when we made it to the final, I think we existed in the final. I don’t really think we necessarily played, and Saracens obviously really outdid us.

“In this past season, as a squad, we knew our goal was to get back there and thankfully we did that in what was probably the most exciting year of the Premiership yet.

“I mean, fair play to Gloucester, they played a good match and Lleucu (George) obviously has great control and such a good boot at ten.

“But I think for us it wasn’t necessarily a matter of, oh, everything went wrong. It was just some really uncharacteristic errors that had big impacts. It was kind of that you give them an inch and Gloucester took a mile on us.”

Despite defeat, Tuttosi has fond memories of the day and running out in front 9,668 fans at Kingsholm, a record for the domestic final in England. “The crowd was tremendous,” she adds. “It was just an electric atmosphere. You ran out and got goosebumps, it was amazing.”

Tuttosi is grateful to the support of the travelling Chiefs supporters in Gloucester. Stood chatting to them on the pitch, thoughts quickly turned to getting back to the big match and making sure it’s third time lucky next season.

“It was funny, after the match when we were thanking the fans, a lot of people said that,” Tuttosi admits. “You hope every year that you get there, and we saw this year the tight, tight margins.

“It wasn’t until the second last and the last round that it was decided who was in the final four, and who was where. And obviously, I’ll work my hardest for our squad to get back there.”

Tuttosi is confident that elusive first title is just around the corner for Exeter, and she also insists it was right for the club to acknowledge their achievements over the season even though they fell at the final hurdle again.

“Obviously, it was a very disappointing result,” she explains. “[But] it’d be a complete disservice if we weren’t pleased about the journey to get there.”

Indeed, the impact that the club has had on Tuttosi – and vice versa – cannot be measured merely in silverware.

The hooker’s final season at Loughborough Lightning in 2019-20 was spent largely on the bench, and it had been more than two years since her second and at the time most recent Canada cap, when Susie Appleby approached her about becoming part of the Chiefs project.

“Going [to Exeter] when the team was just forming after COVID, with some of the modified rules, was kind of a wild and crazy time,” Tuttosi says.

“When I went over there, Susie asked what my goals were, if it was to get back in a Canada shirt. And I said, ‘Right now, it’s to be the best club player I can be and if that’s good enough for Canada, then great and if not, I am going to enjoy the journey’. Because it can be tough when you’re not getting selected.

“And that’s what I did, and thankfully I’m in this group now and I’ve been here in the lead up to the World Cup and the World Cup. And I think the programme is something really special and I’m very, very thankful for my time there.”

Tuttosi’s third Canada cap arrived four years after her second, in November 2021, during the inaugural Pacific Four Series against the USA. She has since made the red number two jersey her own, starting all six of her country’s matches at Rugby World Cup 2021 and scoring six tries.

“That was a tough period,” she says of her four years in the international wilderness. “I’ve always been a player that I don’t think I’m the most skilled or necessarily [one of] those freak athletes that people look for.

“But I know that I always work hard, and I always work my hardest. And every game I get to step on the pitch again regardless of the jersey, but especially in the Canadian jersey, is one that I’ll put my best foot forward for and play like it’s my last because I am so thankful for the experience.

“But I also know what it’s like to feel like it’s out of reach.”

That drive will be on display in Ottawa over the next week as Tuttosi and Canada take on New Zealand and Australia to complete their 2023 Pacific Four Series campaign.

An earlier 50-17 victory against the USA in Madrid, in April, has set the team up nicely in its bid to qualify for the inaugural WXV 1 tournament this October and November in New Zealand.

But Tuttosi and her team-mates are determined not to settle for a place in the top three. They want to beat the world champion Black Ferns and prove to those watching that their performance at RWC 2021, where they finished fourth, was no fluke.

“A lot of people have been telling us how tough it is,” she concedes. “We’re aware they did win a World Cup and they’re a world class team, but what some people don’t know is that so are we!

“We are also a world class team full of athletes with a lot of different experiences that come together and make this mishmash that is Canada and Canada rugby.

“That is our goal this weekend, to perform. We’re not there to just play and have fun against the world champs. It’s to perform and challenge them right to the end and hopefully come away with victory.”

Tuttosi adds: “There was a lot of media that was saying we were going to get smoked by England (in the RWC 2021 semi-final) and all this stuff or we didn’t really deserve to be in that spot.

“And then when we took England right to the very end of the match, I think that woke a lot of people up around the globe about what Canadian rugby is. So, we know that this weekend is another opportunity to do the exact same against the Black Ferns.”

Victory against the Black Ferns on Saturday would be made all the sweeter as more than 7,500 tickets have already been sold, meaning TD Place Stadium is set to host a record attendance for a women’s match in Canada.

Coming on the back of similar records during the Women’s Six Nations, at the Premier 15s final and only last week when the Wallaroos hosted the Blacks Ferns in front of 7,055 fans in Brisbane, it is an exciting time to be a part of the women’s game.

“It’s incredible,” Tuttosi admits. “Never in a million years [would I have thought it was possible]. When people ask, ‘Oh, what’s your plans after rugby?’ I can’t even think too far ahead because I’m genuinely living the dream right now, getting to play in the Prem and getting to represent my national team in a time that the women’s game is being driven forward by the players in it, but also externally.

“It’s amazing and if you had asked me five years ago if I’d be here, I wouldn’t have even known it existed.”

Those young fans lucky enough to be at TD Place on Saturday to watch Tuttosi living her best life in her cherished Canada jersey will know their dreams are never out of reach.