HUNGRY HEARTS – Loughborough Lightning 25-26 Preview
Expect the unexpected from Lightning this season! That’s the promise of head coach Nathan Smith and captain Daisy Hibbert-Jones. And both spoke to Helen M Jerome ahead of their tough opening clash – away at Harlequins.
According to head coach Nathan Smith, Loughborough Lightning’s goal is a top four finish, though they know it’s going to be hard against sides who have splashed the cash, like Trailfinders and Saracens. He wants to grow their brand of rugby, by playing in rapid, high possession style, and reckons you’ll see the changes in how they look, even if their approach remains the same.
There’ll be strength in his own coaching staff now too, with Emily Scarratt retiring from playing but staying on to mainly coach the backs. Scarratt will also have a key role in development – which is something that Loughborough, operating out of the university, are known for – and Smith will lean into her calmness and attention to detail.
Admitting that Quins have a lot of threat, big strong ball carriers and, yes, Aoife Wafer, Smith knows that this opening match means Lightning must be extremely accurate in everything. And they’ll try not to let Ellie Kildunne have the ball too much…
I first asked Smith why people who watched the World Cup, and got very excited should come and see Lightning.
Well, I think particularly if we look at the game with Quins on Friday, it’ll be an exciting brand of rugby you’ll watch.
It’ll definitely be full of players that have played for various countries in the World Cup and it’ll be a great spectacle for anyone to come and see from a rugby perspective.
Tell me about a couple of new signings, Fancy Bermudez and Rachel Ehrecke and why you wanted them
Fancy is someone I’ve been tracking for a number of seasons. She’s got a great pedigree from playing within Sevens competitions for Canada.
She’s an extremely powerful ball carrier as well. So she’ll really enhance our game and allow us to play on the front foot.
Rachel as well, is an experienced American lock.
We signed her essentially, because one: we were lighter in the lock position in terms of numbers-wise, but two: she had some real experience to a younger group of locks in particular, and she can add her knowledge and help develop players such as like a Lily Ives Campion and obviously a Becky Boyd who, though full internationals are still very young in their rugby career.
Who are your rising stars, maybe young players, we should look out for this season?
The team we put out against Quins will be very exciting.
From an England perspective for the next few years, Lucy Calladine will be involved in the squad, current England under 20s captain, and hooker. She’s a very good player, been really impressed with her, ball carrying.
Haineala Lutui is an exceptional ball carrier. Then obviously there’s a Carmela Morrall as well who’s going to be pushing to get into that 12 position.
All exciting young English players, which is what the programme’s about.
I’d also say that someone who had some really great performances within the PWR, not last year, the year before, Bo Westcombe Evans will be back into the mix after being away with injury. She’ll be ready and raring to go.
So there’s some good English talent to look out for over the next 12 months.
I asked Daisy Hibbert-Jones (above) about being full captain now, and how it feels to lead out this Lightning team.
It’s quite a nerve-wracking thing for me, especially at the start of the season.
Rachel Malcolm led the team so well for such a long period of time and there was no-one better for me to learn from. But so doing it as co-captains last year probably was the best preparation for me this year.
The calibre of player we have at Loughborough, the players, the core group, the experience they’ve had, You know, Sadia Kabeya has captained England on the world stage. I think the leaders we have within the group is only going to make my job really easy and I plan to use them!
They’ve got experiences that I’ve not experienced yet, so I definitely want to use them and make sure that we get the most out of them within the group.
Along with USA captain Alev Kelter, you have a lot of Americans in your squad now.
Yeah, we have. We just had, obviously, Mae [Sagapolu] and Tahlia [Brody] join us and then Rachel [Ehrecke]’s on her way over to join us.
So we’ve got a core group of USA players and they had such an exciting World Cup. It’s great to have them involved in the PWR.
What’s the USP of your team?
We’ve got a really good mix of young talent and international experience.
That blend shows that we’ve got players coming through that are so hungry to play.
But then we also have the international experience that kind of levels us out.
So we’ve got the eagerness of the young talent coming through and the international players shaping them and helping them out and giving them invaluable experience and coaching that they might not get anywhere else.
How excited are you for this season?
So excited. I think, like, obviously, off the back of the World Cup, building into this season, I think we’re only going to see the benefits of that over the next couple of seasons.
You know, the amount of people who watched the World Cup shows that there are people who want to watch women’s rugby.
Hopefully, off the back of that, with the amount of PWR players who were playing in the World Cup, people are going to watch them again playing the PWR. It’s hugely exciting to have them here.
I think we’ve got 16 international players that played in the World Cup that are with us at Lightning, and it’s a great place for people to come and see those players.
It’s all to play for, and I feel that people – especially with Loughborough – are not expecting what’s coming from us this season!
Loughborough Lightning are away at Harlequins to start the PWR season at 19:30 on Friday 24 October. Tickets are still available to head to The Stoop and see the game live. If you can’t make it in person, you can watch the game on BBC iPlayer.
