Lotte Sharp: 'Going into my fifth final, it feels special this year'
For almost three years there has been one thing at the top of Saracens Women’s wish list; get back to the Premiership Women’s Rugby final.
In the past two seasons, the competition’s most successful side have been dumped out in the semi-finals, but at the third time of asking have written their name onto the call sheet for this year’s final.
A first half onslaught helped the north London club to a 32-24 win over Harlequins at StoneX Stadium thanks to tries from Alysha Corrigan, Jess Breach, Marlie Packer and May Campbell.
At the full-time whistle relief swept across the faces of the home team as they reached a fifth PWR final.
Lotte Sharp has played in every single one of Saracens’ PWR final squads to date.
Over the past 11 years, the 30-year-old has represented the club on over 150 occasions and shares the captaincy with 2014 Women’s Rugby World Cup winner Marlie Packer.
Feeling the weight of those underwhelming ends to the past two seasons, no one exhaled a deeper sigh of relief than the wing.
“It felt like we’re ready for the final,” Sharp, when asked what feels different this year, said.
“Losing out in the semi-final last year hit the team hard. It’s incredibly special to be in a final again, be back where we used to be back there and feels like where we should be.”
A quick skim through the history books and you can see that Saracens have never lost more games in a season.
Back-to-back losses to Exeter Chiefs and Harlequins last November were symptomatic of a start to the season that saw the three-time champions play 10 of their 16 regular season games before the New Year.
But even with that run of games Sharp and her teammates continued to show an added edge to their game.
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Over the last two seasons it could be argued that Saracens had been complacent at times.
After controlling much of last season’s home semi-final against Bristol Bears, the side capitulated in the final 15 minutes as they conceded late Lark Atkin-Davies and Reneeqa Bonner tries that sent the West Country club to their first league final.
The year before that Saracens did not get a home semi-final for the very first time and were drummed out of the knockouts by a resurgent Exeter Chiefs in the second half.
This year complacency played little part.
Perhaps the best evidence of this was the Londoners’ 100-0 demolition job on Leicester Tigers as the side never let up against their opponents and crossed the whitewash on 16 occasions.
That attitude of punishing mistakes and impressing themselves on their opponents was instilled in this Saracens squad in preseason and kept the team in command of their own destiny.
“It was just constantly knowing that we have a semi-final to get to and knowing that if you put a foot wrong early or late in the season, that could really affect you,” Sharp said.
“It was a case of having that at the back of your mind throughout the whole of it and knowing that you need to be on your best form, getting as many points on the board as possible so that when it got to the last few weeks and things were still up in the air with who was even in the top four. We’d had that mentality from the very beginning, that no prisoners mentality, we were putting ourselves in the best possible position.
“Alex [Austerberry] always alluded to it, controlling our own destiny and not having to rely on other scorelines going certain ways.”
On Sunday 16 March, Saracens will play PWR’s most dominant team in recent memory, Gloucester-Hartpury, in the final.
With Sean Lynn’s side the pacesetters of the competition yet again, the Circus will be the de facto home side, but for Saracens they will feel more than comfortable in the surroundings of StoneX Stadium.
This season the two teams have played one another twice, with each side registering a win, and 165 points have been scored.
So, there could be fireworks.
After yearning to be back at this stage of the season for so long, Sharp hopes to relish every moment
“I think you can easily start taking for granted how this is what I do, that Saracens get to finals, Saracens win, and I got used to winning,” Sharp said.
“As years have gone on, teams get better, the quality of rugby has hit an all-time high and you’ve got six or seven teams all fighting it out.
“This season that hunger has just hit even more on a personal level and within the team. Going into my fifth final, it does feel really special this year.
“If we can come together at the weekend and put in a team performance that we are all proud of, then that’s kind of the big thing for me – if we can go out there and enjoy it.
“I was talking to Duncan Taylor [Saracens backs coach], he’s been lucky enough to play in plenty of finals himself, and he just talks about not taking it for granted and enjoying this moment as a team.
“Putting winning on top of being lucky enough to be in the final would just be the cherry on top.”
Whatever happens in the PWR final, Sharp will be back at school the day after.
Balancing her rugby with a full-time job as a primary school teacher at Heath Mount School, the 30-year-old knows that in the months to come her goal of going to a second Rugby Cup with the USA.
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Switching allegiances to the Eagles in 2022, after earning 10 caps for England, under Sione Fukofuka the team have been transformed into a competitive force.
While on paper the team finished third in the Pacific Four Series and bottom of WXV 1, there was a marked improvement in how the team applied themselves.
Playing in five of the Eagles’ nine Test matches in 2024, Sharp also scored a try in her team’s 32-25 win over Australia in Melbourne.
“It’s definitely on your mind when you’re training and when you’re going into matches, because you know it doesn’t just come down to the PAC Four – you have to be selected to go to those tournaments,” Sharp said.
“Sione’s brilliant at keeping in touch and keeping in contact and watching all of the PWR games, keeping tabs on all of the US players. You know you are being looked at.
“I feel extremely grateful that Sione has come into this squad because it is exactly what the squad needed.
“He brings fantastic knowledge, so he’s teaching the squad a lot more than the squad has ever been taught before.
“The World Cup has been on my mind since coming back from WXV in November. Even in the little things. You are not just training for PWR, you are training to be fit and ready to play at a World Cup in a year’s time.
“That’s where my head’s been for the past six months.”
Competition for places on the Eagles wing has never been higher.
Already contending with the likes of Emily Henrich, Tess Feury, Bulou Mataitoga and Cheta Emba, there is added intrigue when it comes to selection after Ilona Maher’s stint with Bristol in PWR.
For Sharp, the reward is possibly greater than some of her international teammates.
This year’s World Cup takes place in the country that the 30-year-old grew up in and she could represent the country her mother was born in.
Getting to play at the Stadium Light in the tournament opener is something not far from Sharp’s thoughts.
“It’s one of those that you hold on to, but you don’t want to get carried away,” Sharp said.
“There’s a lot of time, there’s a lot of rugby in between and you never know what might happen.
“It is a case of concentrating on my training, working really hard and hopefully the opportunity will come.
“It would be an incredible moment to be able to play against England for the USA with friends and family there able to watch.”
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