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Chiefs 30: Lightning 25

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

Chiefs 32 - 19 L' boro

Exeter Chiefs Women

15 Sabrina Poulin
14 Eilidh Sinclair
13 Alex Tessier
12 Gabby Cantorna
11 Francesca Granzotto
10 Liv McGoverne
9 Flo Robinson
1 Hope Rogers
2 Emily Tuttosi
3 Amy Rule
4 Linde Van Der Velden
5 Abby Duguid
6 Dorothy Wall
7 Maisy Allen (c)
8 Maddie Feaunati

16 El Febrey
17 Demi Swann
18 DaLeaka Menin
19 Gabriella Nigrelli
20 Zoë Dare
21 Lucy Nye
22 Naomi Brennan
23 Nancy McGillivray

Loughborough Lightning

15. Lucia Scott
14. Bulou Mataitoga
13. Alev Kelter
12. Carmela Morrall
11. Bo Westcombe-Evans
10. Helen Nelson
9. Alicia Maude

1. ⁠Isla Curphey
2. ⁠Kathryn Treder
3. ⁠Mae Sagapolu
4. Lilli Ives-Campion
5. ⁠Rachel Ehrecke
6. ⁠Becky Boyd
7. ⁠Daisy Hibbert-Jones (C)
8. ⁠Haineala Lutui

Replacements:
16.⁠ ⁠Paige Stathopoulos
17.⁠ ⁠Anne Young
18.⁠ ⁠Christine Belisle
19.⁠ ⁠Kaya Acton
20.⁠ ⁠Tahlia Broady
21.⁠ ⁠Kendal Waudby
22.⁠ ⁠Aoibhe Kelly
23.⁠ ⁠Fancy Bermudez

Chiefs 38 Loughborough 17

Hopefully someone(coach? senior players?) will use this game and show the team how to close it out - especially when you're 14 points ahead of the opposition like last week.
I have to say that I was a little disappointed to hear the assistant coach Oli Bishop laud the performance of the team who had just imploded at the Stoop and almost grabbed a defeat from the jaws of victory!
As in all these games, there is sooo much good stuff happening only to be really let done by some panic/rubbish!
We'll never challenge / compete with the likes of Glaws/Hartpbury until we learn to play consistently well for the whole 80 mins

Chiefs 35 Loughborough 15

Chiefs 33 - 15 LL

Chiefs 37 - 17 Loughborough

We've put out what looks to be our strongest team (albeit with no Emily Robinson - injured?), so I hope we'll prevail, particularly with home advantage. LL have some talented players, though: Helen Nelson is a very accomplished tactical kicker, Alev Kelter is very dangerous in the centre, and I recall their tighthead prop Mae Sagapolu was a real wrecking ball when we played them at Franklin's Gardens.
Chiefs 31; LL 26

Chiefs 26 LL 16

A very valuable 5 points. Linouts pretty much a disaster area but defence immense and correct tactics in the monsoon. Watched on YouTube and looked like the pitch at one stage covered in puddles. Loughbough Hibbert-Jones. named as player of the match which was fair enough considering all the line out problems she gave us.

There was a biblical downpour during the middle 20 minutes of the match and then 10 minutes later the players were basking in late afternoon sunshine. The wet ball and sodden pitch meant that handling was always going to be difficult, and the Loughborough 10, Helen Nelson, found it difficult to kick with her normal accuracy out of hand, which neutralised one of their main attacking weapons. To their credit, though, both sides made a pretty good fist of it in appalling conditions. Our defence throughout was awesome and the back three of Sabrina Poulin, Eilidh Sinclair and Francesca Granzotto looked very dangerous in attack and effective in defence. Just like the men last week at Bristol, we kept on losing our lineouts near their try line. In part that was down to poor organisation on our part, but in part it was due to excellent defensive lineout jumping by the Loughborough pack. If we’d managed to get that sorted, the scoreline could have been much bigger. Overall a very satisfactory result, and I was pleased with the way they stuck with it and maintained their accuracy to get the bonus point try in the closing seconds. We’ve got a couple of tricky fixtures coming up - away to Sarries, followed by Gloucester Hartpury away. We still have a bye week to come too, which means that holding on to our current third place in the league may be challenging, but top 4 should be doable.