DANI BUOYED UP. Exeter Chiefs hat-trick hero Danielle Preece speaks

Exeter Chiefs returned to PWR Cup action last weekend with a dominant 67-13 victory over Leicester Tigers, and Danielle Preece certainly made an impact!

Charlotte Davey speaks to the young Chiefs star about the season ahead, plus the challenges and opportunities of playing rugby as a semi-pro.

Dani Preece started the season with a second-half hat-trick of tries and a stellar performance on the wing. Only 22 years of age, the future looks bright, with her dream of linking up with the Red Roses never too far away. Enjoyment is central to Preece’s success on the pitch, as she dives into her experiences to date.

You scored a hat-trick of tries in the second half. How pleased are you with your performance and being back out there? 


Danielle Preece: It was nice to go out on the field again. First time of the season, and at Sandy Park as well. It’s nice to do it at home and with the girls, so it was really nice.

Does it feel like you’re reaping the rewards of your hard work over pre-season: scoring tries, helping the team effort to get a big win?

For sure. It’s not just me, it’s all of us. It was a big day, and I think we turned up for the occasion and pre-season’s been really tough, so it was quite rewarding.

Meet the new boss

Exeter Chiefs have a new head coach this season, with Oli Bishop stepping up to the challenge. Preece outlined his strategy and leadership, speaking about preseason and his game day mentality:

How do you feel you’re making progress under his leadership? Can you explain the changes you’ve had, and anything in preseason that’s stood out to you?

I think the style of coaching that he has – alongside Ross {Bundy, assistant coach] as well – they come hand in hand and work really well together. Their feedback is very helpful.

He’s very good at picking you up when you need to be picked up, and telling you that wasn’t good enough and how to go about making it good. So, that’s essentially the difference.

What kind of feedback does he give? Is he pushing you to develop your game in certain ways? Tell me a bit more about you personally and what you’ve been working on over pre-season?

Me personally, there’s an abundance of things. Edge attack is a massive thing.

Making the right decision, if we’re going through the hands or to get wide or if it is a miss pass. Whether we are going through or around basically.

I think he’s helping me identify that and just reward it when it’s good, but also saying: this is what we could have done. The result is good, but let’s think about the process.

He’s very process orientated rather than outcome orientated. 


If you think about the game at the weekend, obviously, it was a good performance, but as you said, there’s always room to improve. So what was the half-time team talk?

The half-time team talk was playing light areas of the field. We weren’t playing in the right areas essentially, and we wanted to exit on our terms and we weren’t doing that.

And as you would have seen in the second half, we did start doing that and that’s how we then came away with more tries. 


Stepping up

As it’s currently international break for many stars in women’s rugby, I asked Preece about the opportunities this brings for young players to get vital minutes and step up to the top level.

Last season you surpassed expectations going to the semi-final of the PWR playoffs. If you think about the team as a whole, what would you say your targets are? What are you aiming for this season?

Right now, we’re focusing on cup more than an overall picture of the league as such. We’re trying to get rotation in and get as much game time through the younger players as possible.

During cup, that’s a massive push with the likes of Ellie Wood, Izzy [Newness-Smith] and Frankie [Welsher]. We’ve got a lot of young girls coming through the pathway, and it’s a good opportunity for them, so for cup, that’s definitely our goal. Obviously, semis would be great, but I think game time is a massive thing.

If you think about the international break, is it a good opportunity for younger players to step up? How important is it for them to get the minutes, and are they under pressure to perform or do you think it’s more of a natural development process?

There’s a mixture of both. Being an individual that’s been through that, you feel the pressure. That’s inevitable. You want to perform, so you put pressure on yourself, and you think everybody else is putting pressure on you, but they’re not.

They just want you to do well. And you’re here because you are good enough and you wouldn’t be here if you weren’t.

I think the girls are really enjoying this environment at the moment. The coaches are doing a really good job of making it a happy environment, especially for the younger ones. It’s just about having a good time performing to the best of your abilities to show you are meant to be here at this moment in your progressions.

You’ve been through that kind of experience yourself. So can you help the younger players, give them the confidence and the belief that they can do it?


Like you say, it’s the pathway and everyone’s got the capability. They just need a bit of belief sometimes.

I was having a conversation with Frankie actually the other day and when she was talking I could myself in her. I can see Frankie and how I was when I joined Chiefs. She said as a winger you sometimes just get caught in running around the pitch and I had the exact same conversation with Mary in my first game for Chiefs.

You do feel like that, but it’s what you’re doing off the ball. It’s nice to be able to speak to Frankie and say it’s normal to feel like that and what you’re doing is right. It’s nice to confide in and help the younger ones because I’ve been there and I know how it feels.

Do you feel it’s really important that you have a balance of young players starting their careers and experienced players who’ve been doing it for a long time? How integral is that to your success on the field?

It’s a massive thing. Right now, we have so many young players. With the games changing a bit and the way the younger girls want to play, it’s fast and exciting, watching Izzy and the way that she holds the ball and absolutely dummies people.

And she’s in second row, it’s incredible and having her alongside someone like Emily Robinson I think she’s a very senior player and she’s amazing.

But they’re completely different and I think that’s where you see how important it is to have the younger ones in. They feed off each other.

Balance

Regarding her personal experiences, Preece spoke about the difficulties of balance semi-professional rugby with a job in hospitality: the harsh reality for many women in the sport.

Talking about your personal ambitions, what do you want to achieve on and off the field? What do you think your strengths are, your weaknesses? Where are you at right now and what do you want to achieve going forward?

This could be quite a big year for me. I want to be in this environment as much as I possibly can. I want my name on the shirt and if that’s in the 23, that’s in the 23. And if it’s in the XV, it’s in the XV, but I want to be in the involved in the 23 as much as I possibly can.

That’s where I am at the moment and that’s my main goal. Red Roses would be amazing, but I’m taking little steps.

How do you find the balance? Is it something that’s taken a while to adapt to or are you now used to it and it’s not such a challenge?

This is my first year since graduating. I’m now working alongside rugby and it’s hospitality. It’s not a big girl ‘job of dreams’, but it’s something I’m learning to get to grips with a little bit because I did work alongside rugby last year.

I’m trying to pick up some more hours and it’s quite difficult. Just with the recovery side of things, the sleep and eating. Then trying to get in the pool and in the sauna, it’s quite difficult to do that. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it all. You have that work, rugby, life balance. Obviously, it’s not ideal, but you make it work.

For the future of women’s rugby as the sport is growing and become more popular, how important would it be if players like yourself didn’t have to rely on having a job alongside rugby?

It would be amazing for the girls. With the recovery side of things and little things like extra passing and strength and conditioning – which we have to do after work – that adds an extra layer of exhaustion to you. It would take it from semi-pro to pro.

Is this something that’s spoken about a lot among the team?

We all have hopes and dreams, but we know we work hard for what we’ve got and we respect each other for it.

Sale Away

Exeter Chiefs travel to Sale Sharks at the weekend, which Preece says is a tough test for her side.

What do you expect from the fixture and how do you prepare for that?

They’ve got very good wingers, very fast, so shutting them down and exploiting the spaces where we can. They’re quite aggressive, so making sure we play in the right areas of the field.

Is it more of a game-by-game mentality that you take in your preparations, or are there some long-term things you assess and look at as well?

We look long term, it’s natural. As a whole right now, we’re just taking each game as it comes, because it’s so rotational, this cup campaign. We’re just enjoying what we’ve got each week and putting what we can out on onto the pitch.

And you personally, you’re going to look ahead at the team you’re facing and the matchups you’re going to have. So how much do you study the opposition and work out what you need to do and how you need to adapt your game to be successful?

I try to watch the game they [the opposition] had played that week as soon as I can. For example, if we played on the Sunday, I’ll watch the game that Sale played on the Monday morning and try to assess what I can.

The coach has put out quite long reviews and previews, which makes it quite helpful to be able to identify the spaces and where defenders are. Their defence is strong, so where we can get around them.

Do the coaching team talk to you individually about what they expect from you?

We have goals. We have individual goals in our individual plans. I have goals I want out of this campaign, but not game-by-game.

But we know what we want personally to take from each game. Sometimes that might look like just enjoying it and being happy because I play my best rugby when I’m happy and having fun. But other days it might be making sure that I finish my hands when I pass.

You said you play your best rugby when you’re having fun. What message would you give to someone in your position wanting to continue a rugby career but having to balance it alongside work?

Take every opportunity you can.

Whether that’s little extras on the Friday night after training or going down and watching someone play a game or watching rugby on TV. There are opportunities out there and taking those as much as possible and doing the extra work will make you stand out for sure.

Exeter Chiefs travel to play Sale Sharks at Morson Stadium on Sunday 3rd October at 2pm as they continue their PWR Cup run.

Photos: Exeter Chiefs