‘In the gap’, something special is building: A first encounter with Trailfinders

There’s a lot to enjoy about having two new teams in Premiership Women’s Rugby. We have Giselle Mather back in the league, another historic ground – Mattioli Woods Welford Road- is added to our stadia rotation, and they’re both set-ups with lovingly crafted and robust development pathways – which are only going to bear fruit. It’s also, put simply, really fun getting to know two new protagonists: their methods and ambitions, their strengths and points of difference.

Sometimes, you just want to hang out with your existing pals – we’ve all spent a wedding breakfast making small talk, resenting the couple’s cheerful attempt to ‘shake things up’ with their table plan – but sometimes, you hit it off, and sparks fly as the unfamiliarity drops its ‘un’. You don’t flee as soon as you’ve finished the inevitable Eton mess – but charge straight to the bar, or even lock eyes and blurrily cascade towards one another as the introduction to ‘Mr Brightside’ plays a few hours later.

No matter how pleasing the status quo, newness can be refreshing and fascinating. I’d been looking forward to meeting Trailfinders since December 2022, when it was first announced that they’d be joining the league, and last week; TNT Sports’ seating plan plonked us right next door to one another.

In their fledging PWR existence, they had played five and won two. 11 table points from 400 minutes of competition – 397 of which had involved one of their megawatt signings – USA Eagles captain, Kate Zackary: an athlete who knows a thing or two about first forays in the world’s best domestic league.

‘There are so many parallels,’ she says when we chat a few days before the newbies headed to Sandy Park – where the two-time finalists, and her premiership alma mater, awaited. ‘We’re a middle-of-the-pack team, just like Exeter were three years ago; getting over the whitewash a few times and playing some tight games. Maybe we didn’t always win, but we still made teams think twice about playing us again.’

Their debut, a narrow loss to Harlequins, ‘was always going to be a rollercoaster’, but – despite the flames of their baptism only roaring more ferociously as they hosted Saracens – ‘there was a lot to be excited about.’ Three games in, a dub! A precious and shiny first victory, up against fellow freshers Leicester Tigers, before a defeat away to Bears – and then a tense tussle of a win over Sale Sharks.

The triumphs, which saw them up to fifth in the standings ‘finally showed what we can look like when we attack.’ Going into the new year, the two-time Team of the Season star mused, ‘That’s where we find ourselves; in a really, really great place.’

We chat recruitment, Zackary’s reinstatement at the base of the scrum (she is, emphatically, an eight this campaign), and off-field bonding. Their Christmas party was, as all the best ones are, fancy dress – with players’ ages determining their outfits. The youngsters skipped along as elves, those in their mid-to late-twenties furred and jollied up as Mr and Mrs Claus, and those in their thirties? Grinches. ‘I rocked a mean, green, ‘tache.’

Preseason had involved a trip to circus school, and Mather organises games nights. When you pull together athletes from across the league and – indeed – the world, it’s vital they start to genuinely care and compete for one another.

What about playing style? Their core mantra, which you’d like to think is inked above the doorways at Trailfinders, Ted Lasso-style, is ‘in the gap’. Essentially; make every second, inch, and opportunity matter. ‘We could’ve done the opposite, and gone really structured to make up for not knowing each other,’ Zackary points out. ‘But, at times, we’re playing like Globetrotters.’ She smiles: ‘a little bit of this, little bit of that, “there’s a space: I’ll take it!” It’s so good seeing individuals having fun.’

A Mather trademark is sumptuous attacking tempo, and she’s inked that heads-up opportunism into their DNA from day one. Structure’s important, too – as a fundamental, and a touchpoint when momentum gets lost – but this squad are empowering one another to ‘go with the flow.’

It’s an approach – and a promising one – not lost on Susie Appleby. ‘They’re very good in attack, they’re sound defensively, and the shape they’re playing is really nice,’ she said before Sunday’s game. ‘You can see the foundations of something which is going to become truly special, and you’ve got to credit Giselle for that.’

Appleby and Mather. Rivals with a common goal. Two passionate, formidable, and encyclopaedic former Red Roses – tasked with taking sides from newcomers to contenders. The former has done that with stunning success – Exeter finished 6th on debut, and have since reached two finals and won back-to-back Allianz Cups – and the latter is making moves already. ‘Trailfinders don’t want to just come in here and get battered,’ the Chiefs coach continues. ‘And that’s not happening. They’ve not been making up the numbers – they’ve just turned Sale over. They’re a good side.’

So, how would the side sponsored by a holiday company travel? Down to a baltic Exeter we went, for the final match in round seven.

A brief chat with an effervescent Mather pre-match set the tone perfectly; she practically twinkled when discussing her programme, and had high hopes for a battling performance – with key markers to be ticked off en route. Behind her, the women in green warmed up, and seeing them all together underlined what a force this outfit has become. ‘Giselle 100% followed our recruitment model,’ Appleby had said in the week: one which combines the ability to be immediately competitive with paving ‘their way for a future’.

Mather has described the endeavour as an ‘incredibly unique opportunity. A blank sheet of paper to build a Premiership side’ – and looked to combine not only youth and experience but local and international talents. Cultures, ideas, skillsets, and personalities – blended together after a scouting mission at the World Cup, the combing of existing PWR sides, and close work within her own pathway. Right from kick-off, those components were in motion.

What a statement of intent it was announcing Abby Dow – World Rugby Dream Team three-peater – as their first signing, who seemingly scored on the stroke of half-time through sheer force of will. How compelling must the pitch have been to lure the great Tyson Beukeboom away from Canada for the first time in her career.

Megan Barwick popped up everywhere – no one, league-wide, hit more breakdowns last weekend – looking to apply all that she’d learned from the likes of Claire Molloy and Alisha Butchers to her newfound role as Trainfinders’ starting openside. Liz Crake emptied the tank (for 74 minutes!) whilst filling her pockets with pilfered ball, and Ella Amory brought some much-needed zip to proceedings for the final 25 – by which point the star of the show had entered the fray.

Elisa Riffoneau. Mon Dieu. On a day when we had Hope Rogers and Cliodhna Moloney (get that woman back in an Ireland jersey, pronto) taking it in turns to produce moments of magic, it was the 21-year-old Frenchwoman, yet to start in this league, who arrived with 40 minutes remaining and 17 points to make up, and just started doing whatever the hell she wanted. Breaks through the midfield, arcing runs around the outside, fizzing back door offloads, and all the destructive unpredictability of a baby rhino on blue Smarties.

11 carries, 122 metres, four line breaks, six defenders beaten, one try assist, and a whole host of new fans. There was a misfiring line out or two, but she changed the game – and was at the heart of a second half which finished 14 – 12. Exeter are at their most vulnerable in the final 20 – it’s when they’ve conceded 47% of their points – and the rising Les Bleues star exploited that to effet phénoménal.

The structures and accuracy weren’t there consistently enough for us to see much play ‘in the gap’, as Mather noted post-game. Trailfinders ‘left quite a lot out there’, but also ‘put together some fantastic things’. Chiefs made life tough for them, too – with blistering ruck speed (Brooke Bradley was wonderful), the constant threat of Alex Tessier in the midfield, and their efficiency in the red zone – all of which piled pressure on a side still tightening up their systems.

A word for Maddie Feaunati, too – who signed off her stint in Exeter colours with a bruising flourish. The visitors will be sorely disappointed to have departed without a try bonus point, after finding so much momentum in that last quarter. Had the game been 90 minutes long, you suspect they’d have managed it.

As it was – the team headed home empty-handed, but all those who watched will have left with a crystal clear sense of what this side are about. Ambition and mutual trust, opportunities for players from a vast array of geographical locations and stages in their careers, and an unshakeable sense that something is building.

‘We’re on the up,’ their smiling Director of Rugby told the side’s social media after the game. On all the available evidence – she’s dead right.