PWR Round 8 – Sunday Match
Of course it does, but we need to see how that claim is working out.
The two winless sides met in Lancashire. This is where the heart of the PWR must be; Sale Sharks and Leicester Tigers fighting for their self-respect.
Sharks put up a perfectly decent performance, scoring three tries, but they added up to only half Tigers’ catch; nor were they enough to earn them a first bonus-point of the season.
The game swung against them from the start; Charlotte Fray, very prominent for Tigers this season, scored under the posts.
The fans’ spirits rose as Holly Thorpe latched on to a long pass from Lizzie Duffy to reach over in the left corner. But Leah Bartlett gained Tigers’ second barely three minutes later. 5-12
Class will tell. Meg Jones picked up a Sharks’ pass dropped at her feet to run the distance from her own half. She repeated the effort, this time with an arcing run, in the second half. It was the sort of midfield penetration that Beatrice Rigoni has found hard to offer for Sharks this season.
Sharks did well to hold the visitors up over their line, but minutes later Nikita Prothero was yellowed and her team were on the back foot again. Julia Omokhuale profited on the end of a big heave over the line. It had started with another piece of quick thinking by Jones. She tapped and thrust for the line. Sharks did well to hold her, but the follow-up did the trick.
Tigers’ other big name, Amy Cokayne, now completed a text-book line-out drive to put Tigers well out of reach. 5-29
Catie Benson restored some confidence, on the end of a series of pick-and-goes (10-29), but then came that second Jones offering to deflate expectations.
At least Sharks had the last word. Robyn Wilkins hoisted the perfect cross-kick from close to the line. Thorpe could wait for it to land in her lap and dot down unopposed
Result: Sale Sharks 17 Leicester Tigers 34 Teams:
Sale Sharks
15 Nikita Prothero, 14 Sophie Hopkins, 13 Beatrice Rigoni, 12 Laura Perrin, 11 Holly Thorpe, 10 Lizzie Duffy (co-captain), 9 Sofia Stefan, 1 Catie Benson, 2 Scarlett Fielding, 3 Detysha Harper (co-captain), 4 Trudy Cowan, 5 Erica Jarrell, 6 Niamh Swailes, 7 Alba Capell, 8 Jasmine Hazell
16 Amber Schonert, 17 Nick James, 18 Sophie Lewis, 19 Iona Antwis, 20 Lucie Sams, 21 Robyn Wilkins, 22 Vicky A Irwin, 23 Olivia Ortiz
Leicester Tigers
15 Claire Gallagher, 14 Emily Henrich, 13 Meg Jones, 12 Evie Wills, 11 Tess Feury, 10 Natasha Jones, 9 Amy Relf, 1 Leah Bartlett, 2 Amy Cokayne, 3 Sophie Benavent, 4 Eva Donaldson,
5 Charlotte Fray, 6 Julia Omokhuale, 7 Roisin McBrien (captain), 8 Tahlia Brody
16 Alana Bainbridge, 17 Abbey Constable, 18 Nadine Vincent, 19 Tiana Gordon, 20 Morgan Richardson, 21 Jenny Maxwell, 22 Amanda Swartz, 23 Nikki Simpson
Table
Table P W Pts
Exeter Chiefs 7 7 33
Quins 8 5 30
Saracens 7 4 26
Bristol Bears 7 5 25
Glos-Pury 7 4 22
Lightning 7 1 7
Trailfinders 7 2 11
Tigers 7 1 6
Sharks 7 0 0
Deep Afterthoughts
We can sense the position Sharks are in when the head coach, Rachel Taylor, speaks of their privilege at being able to play at the Salford Community Stadium, rather than their usual pad, the CorpAcq Stadium. Was it pure chance that this was the game covered by TNT cameras this week, and that it was a double-header, with their male counterparts (8th out of 10 in the Gallagher Premiership) also playing Leicester there?
It’s a further irony that the CorpAcq (aka Heywood Road) is firmly in Sale, Cheshire, Salford isn’t. TV schedules demanded that the men’s game would start mid-afternoon, which meant the PWR kick-off was as early as noon.
My ongoing concerns
As standards go on rising, the authorities still haven’t found a way of securing every club’s future.
The three-year spans instigated at the start of the Prem 15s brought the exclusion of two clubs in each instance. The latest group of nine clubs (minus Worcester) are no nearer reaching equality than before.
Since every player has the right to pick the team she wants to play for – and each club has the equivalent right – the most sought-after are going to apply to a top club.
The only brake on that system would be PWR’s refusal to accept such a move. If they have applied one, they’ve kept very quiet about it.
The speed and alacrity with which they supported Ilona Maher’s wish to join a PWR club is more than a straw in the wind.
Meantime that original aim – of giving the league the broadest spread possible – is proving increasingly wide of the mark. The two main hubs are London (inevitably?) with three, and the west country with three. Then we have two east midlands clubs barely twelve miles apart, which leaves us with one. They happen to lie ninth in the table, still awaiting their first point of the season. That was exactly Worcester Valkyries’ position way back in 2017-2018.
At the cost of repeating myelf for the umpteenth time: Sharks’ underlying aim was to unlock the talent to be found spread right acrtoss the northern territories. Just think of names like Aitchison, Aldcroft, Beckett, Heard, Kildunne, O’Donnell and Ward. But as the Sharks’ squad developed, so more and more NEQPs had to be brought in to ensure standards. It may be a sign of tightening control of PWR regulations that only five NEQPs were in the starting XV today.
Here’s a glance at Sharks’ make-up: the one current contracted Red Rose, who chose to move back north, was absent; then: one other capped Red Rose; two leading Azzurre; one Spaniard; four former England U20 players: Hopkins, Duffy, Perrin, Swailes and Thorpe; another young English player who has her name wrongly spelled by rugbypass; two Eagles; Fielding from England U15s and U18s; Cowan (ex-DMP and G-H) and Wilkins, multi-capped for Wales.
The overall quality of the squad is an indicator of the ever-rising standards of the league. But it’s little consolation to Sharks, when victory proves so elusive.
At this distance from the end of the season, it’s impossible to know how things will develop. Will the Americans and Italians be happy to stay come March? Will Rachel Taylor be putting in a bid to replace Ioan Cunningham in Cardiff? It would be helpful if we knew the PWR board’s thinking on the topic.
Northern Rugby Matters!
