As the RFU made its series of drawn-out statements about the reshaping of its Allianz Premier 15s League, I kept asking the question: Where do Leicester Tigers and Ealing Trailfinders find players of the right quality?
Now we have a first answer: Abby Dow, the best winger in the British Isles (and possibly beyond) has signed for ET. That is a major coup for Giselle Mather, in line with her past captures at Wasps of names like Amy Wilson Hardy, Bryony Cleall, Celia Quansah, Claire Molloy, Claudia Macdonald, Cliodhna Moloney, Danielle Waterman, Ellie Kildunne, Heather Kerr, Justine Lucas, Harriet Millar Mills, Maud Muir, Meg Jones, Rochelle Clark, Rowena Burnfield and Sam Monaghan.
Quite a cast-list.
I remember too wondering if any other Wasps players, faced with the collapse of their beloved club, would be minded to switch two or three miles across from Twyford Avenue W3 to Vallis Way W13. This move is a signpost.
The club calls the signing ‘the first piece of our puzzle’, so we must brace ourselves for more captures. Mather tends to present contracts by the dozen rather than one at a time.
You can imagine the effect on the rest of the squad. Either: fantastic! How do we get the ball into her hands fast enough? Or: dear, oh dear! We’ll never be able to get the ball into her hands. What will the coaches think of us?
A Reaction from south-west London
How will Quins react to these tidings? Over the past couple of seasons they have said goodbye to
top players like Abbie Ward, Chloe Rollie, Jess Breach, Giada Franco and Leanne Infante. They have brought players in from all over the globe, but they now sit fifth in the table, four points behind Bristol Bears (to whom Ward and Infante moved, though the latter has moved on again to Saracens). Even a club as famous and innovative as Quins can’t lose this quality of player without suffering the consequences.
What did the RFU know that we don’t know?
That leaves a central issue unexplained: when the RFU committee selected ET and the Tigers to join the AP 15s, they must have been convinced of the future playing strength of both clubs. What assurances had they been given?
Tigers are thriving in their current league, Women’s Championship North 1, where they are unbeaten after 18 matches, but Vicky Macqueen, the head coach, knows the gap that remains between their present position and what faces them next autumn. Will she be able to pull in top names, and from where?
Meantime the Prem 15s gets under way again this weekend. It will have a strange feeling of impermanence about it: two clubs knowing they are ousted, taking part under false pretences; two others looking on from the side-lines wondering what life has in store for them.
