Fixtures for Saturday 9 December
Gloucester-Hartpury v Sale Sharks, KO 14.00
Loughborough Lightning v Bristol Bears, KO 14.00
Harlequins v Exeter Chiefs, KO 15.00
Trailfinders Women v Leicester Tigers KO 15.00
Saracens bye
The really telling match will be at the Stoop, as Quins try to recapture their best form. But Chiefs don’t look as though they expect defeat any time soon.
Quins are bound to be affected by the unsavoury incident that took place immediately after the conclusion of their match against Saracens. The phrase ‘a moment of madness’ is worrying: we can only hope that no other player will have to resort to using it to explain an unacceptable response to a situation.
How the team react will be everyone’s concern, not least the management’s.
A critical match of a different sort sees the two newcomers lock horns in West Ealing. Neither has a win yet, though both have gained a loser’s bonus in close fought matches. Tom Hudson, Leicester’s head coach, has challenged his team to produce an 80-minute game. This is a well-known failing at every level of the game.
They came tolerably close to beating Lightning last time out, but the phrase ‘valiant losers’ counts for little in the cut-and-thrust of top-level competition. And in late news, they have lost the services of Rocky Clark as an assistant coach. She will concentrate on her budding media career.
Bears have been a disappointment to themselves and their many fans. A trip to Northampton isn’t the easiest route out of their troubles, especially since Lightning got a monkey off their back by beating near-neighbours Tigers in a first ever encounter. But with the overwhelming strength they have through the squad, they should win.
Lightning are delighted to see Sadia Kabeya’s name restored to the line-up. By one of those coincidences that make selection so fascinating, a player who has to make way for her is a late call-up to the England squad for WXV, Daisy Hibbert-Jones.
Head coaches face the problem of having too many star players; how ridiculous! So we see Lark Atkin-Davies (Bears), Sisilia Tuipulotu (Glos-Pury), Abby Dow and Tyson Beukeboom (Trailfinders) reduced to the bench to allow others (for example Lana Skeldon and Laura Delgado) the chance to start. It’s a hard life.
Table
P W L Pts
Saracens 3 3 0 15
Exeter 2 2 0 10
Glos-Pury 2 2 0 9
Harlequins 3 1 2 6
Bears 3 1 2 5
Lightning 1 1 1 5
Sale 2 1 1 5
Trailfinders 2 0 2 1
Tigers 3 0 3 1
Inevitably the table is very bitty. Inevitable because:
1. Every week has a bye, leading to an uneven number of games played
2. We are closing on mid-winter, one game already postponed
3. Current positions depend hugely on who has played whom, and home or away
