IT’S FIGHTING TALK! Gloucester Hartpury v Trailfinders PWR Semi-final

To get the semi-final story unfiltered, we talk to not just the irrepressible Meg Jones and her Trailfinders head coach, Barney Maddison, but also Gloucester Hartpury stars, Maud Muir, Sarah Beckett and Sam Monaghan, plus their head coach Dan Murphy.

You don’t have to look too far into the distant past to see when these two top sides met in the PWR. Just two weeks, in fact. And Trailfinders were the team that brought Gloucester’s impeccable unbeaten league season to an end by the narrowest of margins, eventually prevailing 41-39. They won the rucks, they won the line-outs, they won the points.

But now comes the crunch semi-final, taking place at the newly-named ‘Queensholm’ where Gloucester generally come out on top. So that recent encounter may count for nothing, except maybe bragging rights, and a bit of backchat, of which more below.

First off, let’s hear from Trailfinders.

MEG JONES, FLY-HALF, CENTRE

There’s nothing Meg Jones, the remarkable Red Roses captain and Trailfinders heartbeat likes more than coming up against sides like Gloucester, and especially England teammates, including Maud Muir.

“Yeah,” she says, “I love playing those girls. They love rattling teams.”

She reckons that Sarah Beckett is probably one of them, and Hannah Jones another.

“They love getting stuck in. I’m all for a bit of fighting talk, personally,” she adds.

“I just think it adds a bit of ambience to the game, bit of swagger, you get a bit of energy.

“And yeah, a bit of entertainment, which I think everyone wants to see, don’t they? As a spectator, that’s the sort of energy you want to see.”

Of Maud Muir, she says they are very close friends. However, Jones is very much looking forward to her chat on the weekend. “Let’s see what she’s got in store!”

There’s apparently much backchat going on in these games, as Jones explains.

“Yeah, from time to time, it’s classic like: oh, I’m lucky, or good shot, or whatever.

“If you do something wrong, tap on the back, tap on the head doesn’t go amiss.

“But yeah, I think it’s just part of it.

“It’s fighting talk and I think you just try and give yourself as much energy as you can and try and get in the opponent’s head.

“But there’s no malice. You always walk off best mates and yeah, happy days at the end of the day.”

BARNEY MADDISON, HEAD COACH

For Trailfinders head coach Barney Maddison, there’s no one deciding factor that could swing the semi-final, apart from “probably just playing for the 80 minutes.”

“We know they can play for 80 minutes, we just need to be consistent. And if we’re on the right end of the result after 80 minutes, we’ll be in a good place.

Both Maddison and Jones agree that the one thing they’re looking forward to away at Queensholm is ‘The Shed’ and the whole atmosphere on the day.

“From what we’ve heard, there seems to be a fair amount of tickets sold, so the atmosphere is going to be class.”

“And I think semi-final rugby, loads of people watching, it’ll just be really good to be involved.”

Now it’s the turn of Gloucester Hartpury.

MAUD MUIR, PROP 

The always upbeat Red Roses and Gloucester prop Maud Muir is pretty stoked about the semi-final. Especially as they’re back home again and in knockout rugby.

They are such a strong team that they radiate resilience even in the face of multiple injuries and imminent departures. Muir herself says she’s all right though.

But weirdly, she says, “I keep forgetting people are actually injured because we’ve got such a close group. Everyone feels so part of it.

“Then when you’re training, you don’t really think about it.

“But I forgot that Al [Matthews] was even injured, it’s crazy how many people are.

“We are missing, but we have such strength and depth, that it’s good.”

One advantage for Gloucester is that they’ve done this before. Multiple times. And they’ve usually won these last two, deciding games.

Muir says, “I think we all know what we need to do. And it’s having that mindset.

“We all don’t want to lose. And that’s the greatest motivation, I think.

“We don’t want to lose. We want to win!”

Looking at Trailfinders, Muir reckons their strength is their expansive rugby, and their ability to keep ball.

“So we just need to nullify that. Keep our defensive sets consistent and keep knocking them back phase after phase.

“And then they’ll give up possession.”

As for coming up against her Red Roses captain, Meg Jones, Muir first acknowledges that “she is such an amazing athlete, amazing rugby player, an amazing person as well.

“She talks and everyone listens.”

But on Sunday, says Muir, it doesn’t really matter.

“She’s just another player on the field.

“And obviously she’s got a lot of threats, but we just need to nullify that straight away.

“And I’m sure we will.”

SAM MONAGHAN, SECOND ROW

For Sam Monaghan, who starred for Ireland in the Six Nations, then came back down to earth with Gloucester suffering their first defeats of the season, she has total belief in her team.

“What’s so amazing about this group is how adaptable we are and how we overcome situations like this.

“We’re hurting from the last couple of weeks, but I think we can take our learnings and turn them into positives and create the energy we’ve had over the last couple of years.

“We’ve been in this position before, we’ve had injuries, we’ve had setbacks and we’ve come back stronger and better and more resilient and hungry.

“So that’s what I’m really excited going into this. We know how much of a massive occasion it is for us.”

Monaghan says everyone has worked incredibly hard, not just over the last year, but over the last number of years, to get them to this point.

“We know how big it is for us this circle, we have a few players retiring and a few players leaving and we want to send them off in the best possible way we can because everyone deserves it for the sacrifices they put in, and our fans as well who have been absolutely outstanding.

“We really want to put on a big performance for them on Sunday as well and get that result.

“And we have the experience of playing in the semi-finals in the finals of the last four years.

“But it’s quite simple, actually. It’s going to come down to who wants it more over the full 80 minutes on Sunday.”

Looking back at previous semis and finals, Monaghan says the experience has hardened their resolve.

“You look at the final last year, there was a blip we had where we had a yellow card, we had a couple of penalties and then we come together as a group and we were like: right, what’s our next job?

“Seeing it from last year, watching the girls on the pitch, it just clicked.

“It starts in training and how we prepare and bring each other along and celebrate the little wins that turn into big moments. It’s about how we can chase as many moments in the game and hopefully, the momentum switches, we can come on top and be dominant and then, finish for the win.”

Now she’s fully fit and buzzing for the semi-final, Monaghan feels in awe of the amazing group around her.

“I’ve had some of my best playing days here.

“And I think through having such a big injury I’ve had as well, it makes you appreciate that moment so much more.

“I remember coming to the semi-final last year in final and me, Kelsey [Jones] and Lizzie [Goulden] did the jersey press for the semi-final.

“And it’s so different because you just want to be out there with your friends and throwing the ball around and playing in front of the amazing crowd.

“But we still got to be part of the occasion and, you know, help the girls out in any way they can.

And I think that’s what’s so special about this group.

“It’s never about the 23 that’s playing. It’s about the whole group that makes this so magical.”

SARAH BECKETT, BACK ROW

For Red Roses and Gloucester back row Sarah Beckett, who leaves the club this summer, their mentality isn’t in question.

“I don’t think the fighting mentality is anything that I’m worried about,” she says, “I know that this group and I’m confident that we’ve got a fighting mentality.

“It’s just difficult at the moment.

“Obviously we’ve got a quite pronounced injury list, with world-class players at the top of that and quite a few of them as well.

Beckett says there was probably some preservation going on for the semi-final, regarding the injury list, and it was great to be able to give new girls match experience, with plenty of debuts.

Far from letting the two successive losses get them down and losing the unbeaten run, Beckett says, “that adds fuel to our fire. We’ve got a point to go and prove now.”

It’s the end of an era for many, as this group has stayed together a long, long time, with many of them “winning two, three, however many championships.”

“So we know what winning is about,” she says, “And like people have said before, winning is a habit.

“We got into the habit of doing that earlier in the season. And we just need to refine that habit.

“We know how to win. We didn’t manage it a couple of times.”

As for playing Trailfinders so soon after losing to them, Beckett says, “I think that’s part of the positive of playing somebody so close together. You can review the game and you know that teams aren’t going to change that much, because it’s not a different part of the season.

“Because we’re in the back end of the season people are probably not going to want to do

too many new things. And I think Trailfinders maybe did show their hand a little against us to get the win on that day…”

Being brutally honest, she feels that Gloucester had plenty of opportunities to win.

“We didn’t manage the game well enough.

“And it was a massive learning experience for me as well.

“I’m not really used to captaining, especially not in pressure moments.

“So there was a really valuable learning experience for me of how to manage our discipline, how to manage a ref.

But again, she says, “as a team, we didn’t get that right on the day.

“We’re not going to shy away from that. We weren’t good enough on the day to get that result.

“But it’s been a valuable experience and we’ll take that into this weekend and hopefully we’ve learned our lesson.”

DAN MURPHY, HEAD COACH

Finally, Gloucester head coach Dan Murphy says there’s always an energy that comes around this time of year.

“It’s the business end, and everyone wants to leave no stone unturned and driving for this weekend.”

Murphy adds that the time for resting players is over: “We’ll go full strength to go into this weekend.”

For him, after the Trailfinders game, “the key word was discipline, 17 pens in one game, you can’t expect to win a game with anything above 10, really.

“And with Trailfinders, you can’t give them opportunities, so that’s definitely one thing we’ll be focusing on.

“The girls are brilliant at this time of year. It’s an exciting time, and yes, it’s all focused and all in for this weekend.”

Gloucester Hartpury v Trailfinders is at 2pm on Sunday 14^th June at ‘Queensholm’ aka Kingsholm, aka the Circus. Also live on TNT Sports.