Yahoo Sports Weakened Exeter Women overcome squad turnover to ease past Ealing
Exeter Chiefs 38 Ealing Trailfinders 19
They were made to forgo several of their international operators to meet the league’s limit on foreign players but in a show of defiance, Exeter Chiefs batted away an inexperienced Traifinders side with ease.
Susie Appleby, the Exeter head coach, reshuffled her matchday squad to accommodate 15 English players for this fixture – two more than the league’s minimum requirement – as they race to make up a shortfall and avoid a five-point deduction. But against a Traifinders outfit still adjusting to life in the women’s top flight, her side had little to worry about.
With a rare 6-2 split on the bench, the Devonians possessed too much firepower over the league newcomers, stamping their authority all over a commanding victory that will tee them up nicely for a crunch visit to tabletoppers Saracens next week.
After her grumblings in the week about having to forfeit a host of foreign talent, there were silver linings for Appleby, who threw 19-year-old centre Danielle Preece into the deep end for her first league start.
The English youngster was among the try-scorers for the hosts in a clinical first-half, pouncing on an Alex Tessier’s grubber after Hope Rogers’ early score, with Appleby warning the teeager is “one for the future.”
Tessier, Chiefs’ new Canadian addition at fly-half, continually made life difficult for the visitors, orchestrating swathes of front-foot ball for the hosts, while Cliodhna Moloney also proved influential.
The Irish hooker, returning from a face fracture, went on a barnstorming run after intercepting a looping Trailfinders’ pass to set up Claudia MacDonald for an easy finish, before rumbling over after the break.
Exeter will have their critics given their reliance on overseas talent in recent years, but they have also developed an array of English talent. Exeter men have a star in the making in Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, but their female counterparts have hot property of their own in 21-year-old winger Katie Buchanan who, despite not getting on the scoreboard, delivered another convincing display.
Laying down another marker for a call-up to John Mitchell’s Red Roses squad for the Six Nations, which will be announced at the end of next month, Buchanan brilliantly held up Lindelwa Gwala as the Springbok hooker trundled over the whitewash, while the winger’s disarming ability to resist contact on many of her scampering runs in Trailfinders’ half belied her young age.
Trailfinders will have their own parameters of success and showed glimpses of what Giselle Mather is building in West London. The efforts of French replacement hooker Elisa Riffonneau personified their gutsy second-half, when Carys Cox zipped through Exeter’s defence for a sublime individual score, before Kate Zachary finished in the corner against her former club late on.
Match details
Scores 5-0 Rogers try, 10-0 MacDonald try, 15-0 Preece try, 17-0 Cantorna con, 23-0 Cantorna try, 24-0 Cantorna con, 24-5 Dow try, 24-7 Green con, 29-7 Moloney try, 31-7 Cantorna con, 36-7 Bricknell try, 36-12 Cox try, 36-14 Green con, 36-19 Zackary try.
Exeter Chiefs M Doidge; K Buchanan, D Preece, G Cantorna, C MacDonald; Alex Tessier, B Bradley (E Heyward 64); H Rogers (A Middlebrooke 64), C Moloney (D French 64), L Hanlon (D Menin 41), N Fryday, P Leitch, M Feaunati (T Bricknell 54), M Allen (E Jefferies 54), R Johnson ((H Millar-Mills 61)
Replacements not used S Langford.
Ealing Trailfinders R Inman (C Cox 41); V Laflin, J Schell, J Cooksey, A Dow; E Green, E Swords (E Amory 61); L Crake (K Tamai 75), L Gwala (E Riffonneau 41) S Seye, T Beukeboom, R Burnfield (C Willett 61), S Ikahihifo (A Stock 48), M Barwick, K Zachary.
Booked Seye.
Replacements not used L Dodd.
Ref Hamish Grant.
