The Power Pod (00:00.386)
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The Power Pod (00:12.206)
Hello again and welcome back to the Power Pod and after a blustery weekend it has been confirmed. It is Ellie Kilden's world and we are just living in it. Yes, congrats to the World Player of the Year who missed her club's nail-biting win on Sunday. I mean, where would Ellie rather have been? In the wind and rain of North London or on the star-studded red carpet of Monaco? It's a tough decision. This week we'll look back at the four games from round seven as Queen's push up to second, let me repeat...

Harlequins are second. Well, Gloucester-Harpry might be the happiest team to have not played a game. We'll hear from head coach Sean Lynn a little bit later. Yes, we have Zoe Harrison answering her one question. And of course, we'll have a look at everything coming up in round eight as the PWR table begins to show who's at the party and who's forgotten their invite. That's Philippa Tuttiet. I'm Nick Heath. And this is the Powerpaw.

The Power Pod (01:13.09)
So, speaking of red carpets, two of rugby's greatest barnets were side by side in Monaco. The long haired lover that is former England 7's captain Tom Mitchell, right by the side of our very own quiff mistress in Philippa Tuttiet, in front of the flashes and the snaps of the cameras. How were the World Rugby Awards, Philippa? my gosh, Nick. They were so good. Like, so good. wow, what a place. I mean, Monaco's just beautiful.

The hotel we stayed at was stunning. The awards itself, was a cabaret awards theme. Which was really cool. So it was very, I think Gatsby vibes. Okay. So you had small intimate tables, just four per table, champagne on flow. And then you sort of had nibbles at half time. was, was awesome. I was on the American table. So I was with, Abigail Stytus, Aleph Kelter and Blaine Scully.

the former fly half for USA. So maybe, don't know, everyone gets confused in my accent. Maybe the organizers thought I was some Welsh American. You wouldn't put it past them. But yeah, so I was with them, which was amazing. Come nine o'clock, Abby was like calling the waiter over and I thought, great, more drinks. Okay. And she was like, espresso's for everyone. I was like, my God. In my head, I had to be like, Phil, don't tell them you normally go to bed at nine o'clock. Just be cool and take the espresso.

You know? But yeah, it was awesome. Dancing into the early hours, but it was just, it was lovely. There was so many, you know, players that I haven't seen for a long time. And then people that you almost see every other weekend, but you never actually get a proper chance to chat, you know? Aoife Waifah. So I could chat with her. She made Dream Team and her mum was there, which was lovely. So we a good old chat. And I've got the scoop. There is an

EFA wafer, mark two, coming. She's 18, she plays back row, she's already on the sort of the pathway, so yeah, look out for her. Is this an actual relative or just another... sorry, yeah, I missed that bit, it's a sister. wow, so there's another wafer. Yeah, there's another wafer. Excellent, a multi-pack of wafers, excellent.

The Power Pod (03:34.99)
wow. Well, that's that's that's excellent news. Well, I'm glad you had a wonderful time. The pictures with you and Tom Mitchell, I thought she's found another another husband. You were also you also sent me a picture with your other work wife, Sarah Orchard. Yeah. So so yes, feeling very much like the the forgotten man over here. But no, it great. You know, I almost had guilt. I had guilt. I was sorry. I was like, so this feels naughty. I think I need to tell Nick you're here. Excellent. That's what we like to hear.

Well, listen, we're glad you had a good time. Glad you got stuck into the champagne and the espresso martinis and whatever else was flying around. good. It sounds like you did the awards justice and everyone had a good time. Right. Should we remind ourselves that, you know, while there was some glorified enjoyment and awards going on, that we did have some rugby in round seven.

Yes, absolutely we did. let's kick it off. Loughborough Lightning 36, Leicester Tigers 24. So a home win in the East Midlands Derby played out in Northampton as Loughborough secured the try bonus point before half time. Meg Jones denounced her arrival back from injury with an intercept try for Tigers. Alev Kelter announced her own arrival with a pretty uncompromising second half try of her own, busting down the Tigers door.

Lightning had a nine point lead at half time and then kicked on in the second half to win by 12 points. Tigers managed to score their second highest points of the season, but not enough for a losing bonus point, which I really do feel for them there. Yeah, yeah, shout to Meg Jones, the Alan Shearer one finger in the air, try celebration running in. Emily Scarratt bagging a try by running a switch.

Which I just thought was great. I have done the voiceover intro for another rather well-known podcast and I actually got a message from referee Amy Barrett-Thron last night just saying, you can never run a switch too many times, which is the line I used in the intro because yeah, Scars managed to get that one.

The Power Pod (05:39.854)
and was also round seven top point scorer with 13. So that was good. I saw Loughborough Lightning assistant coach Charlie Beckett. picked out Helen Nelson and Helen Rowland for the sort of choices and intelligence around their kicking, pointing out that in the conditions they had to move away from that deeper passing game. And we certainly saw that a few weeks ago when they were playing Chiefs. And 1,300 people at St. Sadie, at Franklin's Gardens, which I don't think is bad given the weather.

the sort of growth of that area in terms of women's rugby. I know we would love to see much bigger crowds, but I think credit where it's due, where they are starting to grow. Yeah, absolutely. And I just want to give a bit of a nod to Tigers and their defense. They were dogged. They really hustled, sorry, Loughborough Lightning. They proper stayed in the game.

So I just want to give a bit of a nod to them. Cause I really feel like, you know, we've seen that little glimpses from Tigers. We've seen a glimpse of attack here, little glimpse of defense. Whereas I feel like this game actually marked an overall improvement you could see across the board. you know, the first sort of 10, 15 minutes, they were all over Loughborough. They really took it to them. So credit to Leicester Tigers. You know, it's a strong score line. And that's where I say, I really feel for them. I feel like they deserve that losing bonus point.

OK, let's move on to our second game. Bristol Bears 26, Trail Finders 7 from round 7. Emma Orr, your favourite for the league this season. Opening the scoring was a cracking outside break. Trail Finders then scored their only try of the match through Tyson Boukaboum before Roemarston Mulhern, Sarah Byrne and Amber Reid secured the bonus point for the Bears at Shaftesbury Park. I just felt at times the Trail Finders defence was a little bit like a wet paper bag. It sort of...

just opened up a little too easily for some of those Bristol Bears tries. What did you make of it? Yeah. And you know what? think the conditions as well, I think they were actually quite lucky. think Bristol Bears would have scored a lot more if it wasn't so bad. You know, there were so many times when as a former player, you miss playing like so many times, but watching that game was not one of them. Not one of them. mean, you know, when you can see the rain is bad because you can never normally see the rain on TV, but it was just driving rain.

The Power Pod (07:54.862)
windy conditions. And that's obviously when we know Bristol love to pass, love to play wide. That's not really conducive for their play. So I actually think, yeah, trail finders were lucky really, but quite disappointing. We thought we'd see a little bit more from them in attack, but then that's credit to Bristol. They had that kind of slow, steady defensive press. And it was more of a case of, think because it's clever, because the condition's so bad. Let's just keep pressing trail, press trail, and eventually they'll...

They'll fumble, although, you know, won't handle the ball in the conditions and that's what happened. Yeah, that is certainly, certainly the way to do it in those conditions and proved effective, certainly looked, made Trail Finders look worse as a team than they are, I would say, which, which the Bears would have been perfectly happy with. Moving into Sunday then, the, Sharks game.

So Sharks 19, Exeter Chiefs 29. Corpac Stadium was a bit of a mud bath. So a little surprise, the first two scores came from two props. First, Sayles' Ditesha Harper got home side on the board as Sharks led until the 18th minute before Nelson got the Chiefs going. Sayle had Eva Wood and Lizzie Duffy back starting, which was great to see. Duffy with a try that made it a three point game after 33 minutes.

But true to form and despite the conditions, Exeter Chief had the bonus points wrapped up at half time. Yes, actually Makila Nelson made more dominant tackles than any other player at the weekend with three and one a turnover. So it was a good form for the Chiefs, as she has been all season. I spot Liv McGovern missed three conversions, so Chiefs could have seen themselves up to 35 points. Incidentally, we might have seen trial around up there.

at sale. Katie Buchanan back for Exeter Chiefs, which is lovely to see. She was scoring just after halftime, There was a line out just inside Chiefs owned her meter line, went all the way to score seven players involved. If you haven't seen it, go and check out the round seven highlights on the PWI YouTube. yeah, mean, sale sharks are going to be pretty pleased with that result.

The Power Pod (10:07.382)
I would say, even though they've lost and taken nothing from it, which sounds so patronizing, I think, think bearing in mind they're playing the unbeaten, top of the table, then, then that, then that's gotta be the reason. Yeah, absolutely. And they were times when, you know, they really built up momentum, just playing simple, same way rugby, like one out runners, keeping it back to basics, but they managed to get a real role and a bit of momentum going. So

You can certainly see the glimpses of what they're trying to do up there. And like you say, they are playing top of the table who, you know, we said, didn't we last pod is Susie Apple be gonna, you know, rotate, heavily rotate the squad, which she didn't. That was a fully loaded squad. So a 19-29, I mean, that's very respectable score. Yes, we were sharing that line up when it came out, weren't we? In our little WhatsApp group after last week's show. So yeah, they went fully loaded. I just, I wondered as well, you know, the...

Thanks to the Chiefs down there on the Devon Riviera enjoying life in the southwest and then got sort of drawn into a proper mud bath of a game up there by sail sharks. But yeah, credit to the Chiefs. They got the job done, of course. Right, okay, let's look at then the last game, which was the televised game on Sunday at the Stonemacks. Saracens 14, Harlequins 15. Really challenging conditions for this one.

coaching reminder to not assume a chase is a lost cause as Beth Wilcock dotted down the opener for Quinn's before then getting a yellow card. It was all about the wind from right to left as you were looking at it. I reckon it was worth about 10-15 points. Quinn's led 10-0 at the break, but then amazingly got the score first in the second half. Beth Wilcock earning the player of the match nod, getting a second try. Sarri's got their first point at 65 minutes through May Campbell.

Alex Osterbury was not cutting a happy figure when we had to interview him second half on the TV. And you know, it's one of those things that gets set up, right? You know it's happening. we're going to speak to Ross Chisholm first half, about 20 minutes. We'll speak to Alex Osterbury second half. we kind of, I know that we'd gone to him slightly early and got him ready. So I knew he'd been waiting a few minutes and I thought he just wants to be coaching this game. And said, all right, let's go over to Alex now.

The Power Pod (12:21.474)
So then I saw him come up on the monitor with a face like Thunder and I was like, Alex, how do you think it's going? I did not enjoy that at all. And yeah, just sort of fudged a second question. Okay, thanks for your time. let that just carry on. Ultimately, for me, Harlequins managed the game well, Saracens didn't.

I've never seen a kick like that one Zoe Harrison did in the first half where it literally went up in the air. It kind of like hovered for a bit, spanned back and then ended up behind her on the other side of the field. And when the cameras panned to her, she was just laughing. She's like, what am I meant to do with that? know? hit an invisible wall. Yeah, it literally did, didn't it? Conditions, yeah, terrible. But like you say, credit to Queens.

dominated possession, dominated territory at times, salaries and their line out. And again, this could be weather dependent. Yeah. But it, skewed, they fumbled it in their own half. Harlequin's straight on it, you know, fighting for every, every ounce. Another really good performance and how good again, Harlequin's back row. Jade Conchall Roberts, Klaas, Nicole Wythe, Alex Cowell. And then coming off the bench to have someone like Babawa Latcha in the front row acting.

like a back row player just everywhere. Brilliant. Yeah. The Queen's bomb squad with a couple of those South Africans in there. They basically, I heard that second sort of tight five, they all came on together. They had emptied the bench entirely at the same time a previous week, but actually those five, they had trained during the week solely as a second tight five. And I quite like that. They basically go, the first front row and two locks.

done. We're now going to bring on basically a second scrum that has spent all the week scrum scrumaging together. So then they come on and they know exactly how they want to work. And yeah, my goodness, didn't it? Didn't it look effective? But yes, certainly people like Latcha in the loose looking really good as well. So yeah, it's it's good times at Harlequins by all accounts. And I'm sure we'll chat a little bit more about them as we look to the preview. All right, let's get into our round eight preview then kick off with two two o'clock games on Saturday. Saracens

The Power Pod (14:35.048)
staying at home to take on Loughborough Lightning, a very interesting time to play the Londoners off back to back losses. At King's Home also at two Gloucester Harpary welcoming Bristol Bears. Then three o'clock it's a West London derby with Ealing Trail finers the visitors to the stoop as Queens look for six wins in a row. You read it right. then on Sunday, the live TNT sports game is sales sharks against Leicester Tigers, both teams in search of a first league victory. Exeter Chiefs.

with the bye week. Okay. So on Saturday, two o'clock, we've got Saracens against Loughborough Lightning at the Stonac Stadium. So we've got a hurting Wolfpack remain at home after that one point loss against Queen's against the Lightning team that will be keen to kick on after their Midlands triumph against Tigers. And who would have thought that this is a mid table clash? I mean, we've literally got fifth against sixth. Those Saris are nine points clear of Lightning and perhaps shows

you know, how there is starting to get that little bit of separation in the league and you kind of feel like after this round, that separation might just be a little bit too much for any kind of change, you know? Remember guys, if you are not making the trip up to North London, you can watch this one on Saracen's YouTube page. Yes. Yeah. Saracens must've felt sick at the weekend. mean, three weeks to rest, recharge, refocus, work on their scrum.

only for Storm Burt to come along, give them a bad hair day and suffer that second consecutive loss. mean, know, excuse me, it was a one point loss, you know, so no disasters in the Saris ranks, but sporting psychology can be a cruel mistress. You start to get into your head, okay, we're playing well, but we're losing. I mean, if you're Nathan Smith this week at Loughborough, you're just like, okay, we get into their heads early that first quarter, they start to doubt themselves, things aren't working. I don't know.

I think this is a really interesting one as to whether Loughborough can get in their heads and do something. And look, you mentioned it, that table gap, I think is beginning to tell a story and Loughborough Lightning have to be a team that takes responsibility as best they can for closing it. Because otherwise we are beginning to see this sort of five and four split. But interestingly, we've talked about who we think might be top four.

The Power Pod (16:56.438)
and we can't work it out because we think there are five and actually this split is happening below those top five at the minute, isn't it? it's one that I imagine Saracens will win pretty comfortably based on the overall league sort of standard that we've seen from Loughborough Lightning. But if they can hit their straps, then yeah, this one could be quite engrossing. I certainly think that the narrative around Loughborough Lightning has got to be.

this is the opportunity, this is the time, because we still haven't seen the best from Loughborough Island. Yeah, they come off the back of a win, at times you would still expect more from the clientele that they've got. So there is definitely still room for improvement. they can manage to put that together, that improvement, then going down to Saris, a wounded Saris, that would be huge. That would be one of probably the biggest shocks of the season if they could do it, but it's certainly not out of the realm of possibility.

like you say for Saris, they should be fearful at this point. You know, it's a long old season and you don't want to make a mountain to climb for yourself. They need to get back on to Saris form now because you're starting to see these little chinks in the armour that I think Alex Osborne is going to want to absolutely stamp out. Yes. And you've got a pretty decent defensive effort. One of your fellow Welshies, Georgia Evans. Georgia Evans is just class. I love this girl.

Her work rate is just, she's so consistent with it. She's forever up there at top tacklers. She made 33, the most out of any player so far in the league. mean, that is just, and that's just, that's not a defensive. You know, sometimes in the defensive line, you'll have those players that are allowed to shoot out, right? And you see them and you'll see them make the dominant hits. And you know that that is almost a coaching protocol. You are my player. If you see it, you can shoot out. hasn't got that. It just comes from within her.

She is just one of the cogs, because of the position, especially in second row, you are just one of the cogs that just needs to keep working, keep getting up on your feet. But it's down to you as the individual, how quickly you get to your feet. How quickly do you come up? How quickly do you fold around and find work for yourself? And she is just constant in that sense. I agree. thought she was great. And look, we heard from Alex Hossabee at the start of the season talking about how he manages his squad as he goes through the season. I dare say how he does that would

The Power Pod (19:18.478)
potentially change if they were top of the log without any losses. So with Gloucester-Harpley round 10, Bristol round 11, they've got Lightning again in round 12. I wonder how much it's going to change his player management. Yeah. Well, he did talk, didn't he, about having sort of plan A, B, C and D. So hopefully he's got a bit of a contingency in mind for this when things haven't quite gone their way. What are you going to do about it? mean, question. Should May Campbell have started?

She the big build up, didn't she? And TNT went and filmed the feature. And I think when the teams came out, were like, okay, well, we've done this big sell on May Campbell. Now she still came on on whatever it was, 50, 55 minutes and then did well and scored a try, but the lineup wasn't great, was it? No, but again, could you look at conditions a bit for that? But look, she came on, she makes the turnover, she was hustling in defense and she scores a try. So it's a good job they did build her up because then you've got people questioning.

Where's this May Campbell in? And then when she comes in, you're like, there she is. You know? I mean, you couldn't ask for much more of an impact if she had a chip on her shoulder, which she rightfully should if I'm not starting. She certainly channeled that in the right way. Yeah. Well, I think it is all about these impact players. And so she certainly came in to provide that. Did Saracens manage the conditions well enough? Did they play in the right areas?

I don't know that they did. It was sort of interesting that they, they arguably should have been using the wind to pin Quinn's back in that second half when they had the wind behind them. And then there was something I sort of, I sort of thought you've made a rub for your own back here because then it was 76 minutes. They needed to be down the other end. And the one thing they really couldn't do at that point was give the ball away to Quinn's. they were in their own 22 and they had to hold onto the ball, which is the tactic of the team playing into the wind more than the one behind them. And, but at that point they were chasing the scoreboard. So,

So yeah, well, there we go. That is going to be quite the contest. Saracens against Loughborough Lightning, that first two o'clock game. The second one, Gloucester-Harpry against Bristol Bears. Third against fourth. First time they're playing each other after that final at Sandy Park, which Gloucester-Harpry won 36-24. They played each other 15 times in the modern era of the Prem 15s and PWR. Gloucester-Harpry winning 12 of those, including last year's final.

The Power Pod (21:39.778)
Does the circus need a top scout this season having lost to both Saracens and Exeter? For Bristol having lost to Saracens, this is a chance for them to take points away from one of last year's top four. It is a big old West Country derby this one. And Sean Lynn has spoken to us this week and told us that he's really valued the rest week, then used the bye week to start focusing on Bristol, so they'll have had a fortnight's

build into it. He also told me that they're wary of the Millie David threat. Jazz Joyce, thinks, is in good form as well instead of the old we're focused on ourselves line. So let's hear a little bit more from Sean Lynn and well, maybe I had to ask him about the Wales job too. We're really excited for it. Very excited going into these these top four games. Everybody wants to be playing in them, especially this weekend.

local Derby rerun of the final last year. So yeah, we're fully excited about it. And we got some girls coming back into back into it as well going into this week. So really excited to see those ones coming back. Yeah. So who's that? What sort of firepower you hope is a call on? Yeah, we're looking to Sarah Beckett's looking in fine form at the moment. And then we got Maud Murr looking very well. Venner is looking sharp with it. So yeah.

It's looking good, looking positive. But there's the girls who have been out there already are going well with it as well. making sure we're managing their game time coming back in. And in terms of your side, mean, was obviously having to balance those personnel, then having to balance the internationals back from WXV. It was a question I asked actually Marley Packer last week ahead of the Saris game for her. I guess it's a similar, slightly different phrase question for you.

Does it almost feel like this run of four games now is a sort of reset and start of your season proper because of the personnel you'll have available almost? You've consolidated the points you got out of those first few rounds. Yeah, you're definitely right there, Nick. You know, and it's really difficult where we're going into games where straight away we went into Saracens and we did some awesome changes.

The Power Pod (24:01.594)
But, you know, we had a real good training week last week. We're having a real good training session yesterday and fully focused on these big four weeks. So we're taking that momentum into these games. So, yeah, it's going to be big for us. And having that consistency of the squad is going to help us massively as well. Being hugely focused on club is everything I'd expect from you, Sean. I can't spend a couple of minutes with you without pointing out that

Yoan Cunningham has stepped away from that Wales job. Several people have put your name in the frame as someone who works with a lot of those Welsh girls and could no doubt do a good job working with a few more. Is coaching the Welsh side at national level something that interests you? I think coaching any national side will have an interest in anyone in the club game. It's probably the next step. But yeah, like you said, I'm fully concentrating on club at the moment.

work and making sure that everything, the environment that we are creating at Gloucester, Hartree is my primary. Have you been allowed to have a conversation with Wales or with Gloucester about potentially that opportunity? Look, yeah, I think it's just some open honesty. James, the CEO, Django, he just said if you do get a shout, me a heads up as well. yeah, it's, you know, I don't think as a club anyone will stop anyone and

I think it's what I look at within the players as well. If they have opportunities going into the international game, I would never stop them as well. yeah, like I said, my priority is with GH. So what I'm hearing there is that is not a no. That is not a no. Precisely my thoughts. my gosh.

I mean, that would be amazing. You know what, actually we were on the bus going back to the airport from Monaco. Have I told you I went to Monaco the weekend I went to Monaco? no, no, not at all. So we were on the bus and there were players and everyone sort of around and we were all sort of chat, chat, chat, chat. So Zoe Alcroft was sat in front and she was kind of just keeping herself to herself, blah, blah, blah. And we were all chatting and then it came up about Wales and someone mentioned Sean Lin and literally she got up, turned around and just gave everyone the eyes as if.

The Power Pod (26:17.25)
Don't you dare. It was almost like, if you want him, you've got to come through me. Yeah, yeah. Gave a Paddington hard stare. Yes. Yeah, I totally agree that there was no no there. Surely if that conversation's not happening, then you turn around and say, look, it's great. I'd love, it's very nice to be in the conversation, but you know, I'm really committed here. And then mentioning that he's spoken to James Forrester, the key man.

Gloucester-Harpry, yeah, that sounded to me like a conversation is happening. And there was a little detail in there that made it sound like, and I've certainly been, you we've been working on this theory that perhaps it's a job share, it's a dual effort between Gloucester-Harpry and Wales until the end of the season potentially, and then he continues just with the national job. yeah, I have a feeling. I have a feeling in me bones. we get as much as we can out of Sean in there.

Look, I could have, I appreciate it journalistically, I could have turned and just said, well, have you spoken to Wales? But I get on with Sean Lin and I didn't want to put all that pressure on him. I'll leave that to some other colleagues of mine. But yeah, look, there we go. And he's clearly looking forward to this game at the weekend. So that'll be one to really look forward to. It's not going to be live streamed anywhere, which is absolutely gutting. But that's...

That's that one really. Amber Reed in good form for the Bears. She assisted two tries at the weekend. Got another one herself. Yeah, creating the space for the likes of Millie David. Interesting there, run up to Christmas. Yeah, Gloucester-Hartbury, obviously home to Bristol, away to Lightning, home to Saris and then away to Exeter. So tough run there. Just from the Bristol perspective, this game.

my gosh, this is huge. This really is a big one for them. You know, think back to that final and how dominant they were in that first half. It was insane. Half time, 17-7, but then they just let it slip away. How much have they learned from that experience? How much do you review that? Because it's funny after a final, because you're not back in camp the next week, going through the same sort of process as you would. And quite often you lose a final in that way.

The Power Pod (28:38.154)
It can be right, like scrumple up, throw it out. That's done girls. Great effort. Go and enjoy yourself, but they've got to go back there. They've got to go back and revisit that because no one really saw Gloucester-Harbury coming back in, in that second half. you know, when I spoke to Hannah Jones a couple of days after that final, the Gloucester-Harbury Center, and I said like, were you worried? And she was just like, no, we just believed in what we could do. And we didn't just knew if we could just stay in it, we'd find a way like super calm, super composed.

So Bristol got to rattle them. Bristol got to make them think that they are at a control to really get into that game. One thing that I thought about bearing in mind our speculation around Shulkin and Wales is let's say that he has got the job. Let's say that that then gets announced at some point. Will it get announced before the Six Nations? You would assume so because there's going to have to be some, you know, getting squads together and that sort of thing. And then I thought, well, actually, you know, they...

lost two games already this season. He did say to me, you we didn't hear in that clip, but the pressure is off slightly already because of that. They can now just focus on the job rather than, you know, defending like last season. They were a relatively unbeaten run all the way until fairly late in the season. When are they going to lose a game? Blah, blah, blah. And then I thought, him potentially moving on to suddenly galvanize a squad, say, right, we're going to do it one last time for Linney before he goes, if he's going. I thought, I thought that.

that could end up being the sort of crystallising moment for that squad to go, right, we found our motivation to really want to do the three Pete and God help anyone playing Gloucester Harperey, that's all. Okay, Saturday 3pm, we've got Harlequins sitting in second against Trailfinders currently sitting in seventh.

It's a 3pm kickoff at the Stoop, also live on Harlequin's YouTube page. Woohoo! Queen's have placed themselves into second place with that victory at the Stone X. They should have World Rugby Player of the Year. I went into boxing mode. Did it sound OK? OK, cool. Yeah, great. Ellie Gilder will be back on the team. And the last thing they want is to slip up against their London rivals.

The Power Pod (30:45.282)
Trailfinders have pushed Saris in round one. Remember that opening game really shocked everybody and then went down to Exeter and pushed them too. And they put 64 points past Loughborough. So this has the potential to be a good one, but Trailfinders are going to have to perform a hell of a lot better than they did last round. Yeah, totally. Trailfinders, yes, scored four tries against Sarisons in round one. They spanked Loughborough, as you said, in round two and then beat Tigers away.

But yeah, they have come up short against the top teams. I sort of think actually this result might help us define if Queen's really are one of this season's top teams as they seem to be demonstrating by the result. Yeah, absolutely. And you know what? When I highlighted earlier in the show that Harlequins are sitting in second, this is so big because remember last year they finished in eighth, okay, on 29 points.

They're currently second halfway through the season and they're already on 25 points. Like this really is a huge season for them. Ross Chisholm, he must be relishing having World Player of the Year back after picking up the award for her exploits on the world stage. And Ellie Kildone spoke after receiving the award about the balance of playing in a winning team alongside playing her own game. I love running and I love being able to do what I want.

essentially see a space, go for it back myself. we have got a new coaching staff, a new playing style in England that is, is dare to play, see and do. And I wouldn't be able to do what I do without the people around me. I know it's really cliche to say, but I am an outside back. So I can tell when things have gone wrong because I don't have a lot of space to run into, but you know, a lot of the time.

The girls do the graft in the middle, they carry hard, they carry very, very hard, I'm glad I'm not there. They are able to fix players and by the time it comes to me, it's often just a one-on-one or a two-on-one and it's a case of instinct taking over and fight or flight. And with the size of some of the girls nowadays, I'm definitely in flight. So I think that, you know, there's a combination of both having the confidence to play but having the confidence in the team around me as well.

The Power Pod (33:03.084)
She is just wonderful, isn't she? knows what she's about. She's got the confidence to speak about what else there is to come for her. Do we feel a bit sorry for Alex Matthews not picking up that gong on a second nomination? Either way, it's Ellie Kildon fully deserving of what's been a brilliant year. Yeah, I just love the way that she says, I just love to run. You know, keep it simple. I just love to run. And to be fair, you know, I mean, they say that some of the best players in the world.

They might come off the pitch and someone will say to them, it's amazing when you did this, this and this. And they're like, I don't really remember that. Cause they just react. They're in that flow state. They're just doing what they love. Just running. For us, we're like, my God, the way she turned her hips and she stepped here and she looked at that person, but she jumped me there and she went there. And she's just like, yeah, I just went for a run. It's amazing. Yeah, that's what I love to do. Exactly.

So yeah, congratulations to Ellie. Lovely to hear her remarks after winning the award to our friends at World Rugby. And yeah, Queen's, look, they've beaten Bristol and Saracens now. They've got to keep up that momentum and stay within touching distance of that top four. So three o'clock and you can watch that one via the Queen's YouTube.

OK, Sunday then, the first of December. are truly into the festive season. It's a 12 o'clock game, part of a doubleheader up there. The men will be playing afterwards. Sail Sharks in ninth against Leicester Tigers in eighth. The TNT sports game. I'll be alongside Rachel Burford on commentary. And look, it's great to see Sail Sharks having a televised home game this season through the doubleheader. And look, they didn't have a home TV match last season.

The camera's not really able to get themselves set up at Hayward Road or Corpac Stadium. So I think this is great. It's a big occasion against Lightning. Tigers had more possession, one more breakdowns on the ground, but they only made nine visits to the 22 when Lightning made 14. They're going to want to try and improve that. 17 season tries for Tigers. Only sales sharks have less with 13. They are a fun bunch to watch the Tigers, but they do have too little to show for it at times. Set piece.

The Power Pod (35:12.498)
has been a bit wobbly, line-out's been faltering. But look, Sale, scoring three tries against undefeated Chiefs isn't to be sniffed at. And ahead of going up to Manchester on Sunday, I was able to catch up with head coach Rachel Taylor and ask her how they're feeling after the weekend. The weekend's result probably gives a bit more of a reflection of where we currently are in terms of closing the gap and being a bit more competitive with some of the teams. Probably across the season, we've picked up a few injuries, our squad being slightly smaller in depth.

has obviously made it a bit of a struggle. But to be fair, it's like the girls who have come in probably had their opportunities a little bit earlier, maybe being some of the players, obviously from an under 20s perspective, under 23s, they've come in and they've stepped up and they've taken it as a really good opportunity. And I don't think we could have asked more from that group. They understand, they get it. They know they're doing something for probably a bigger cause, which is really refreshing as a group of people and players.

they can all relate to it. You know, their younger journeys through rugby in the North maybe haven't been as linear perhaps as other places. So they understand the impact that they're having on the wider game, the wider community game. And I think they started to see that. So I think it's one of them, you you see Ali Gildun picking up player of the year this week and like she's from West Park Leeds, you know, and it sounds silly but...

you know, them putting out tweets and sort of almost taking it back to where she's from has a huge impact up here. means a lot. And a lot of these players that play for the club right now, they've gone through that system. It means a lot to them. So they understand it. They know the bits that they want to progress on and keep developing every week. And I think as long as we can evidence that we are getting better and they feel like they're getting better, whether that's a tactical decision, you know, a game management...

point of view, whether that's a physicality thing, I think as long as we can keep evidence in it and they feel it, you know, they believe it. So there's no doubt this group will be the group that changes it. And I think they want to be part of that. You know what? The most important thing I'm taking from that is the fact that all the players are on board with it. They understand where they are. They know that they're on this journey because it's a tough old season for them. They know they're going to be up against it in most games and to keep the morale high, to keep that effort there defending.

The Power Pod (37:33.504)
is the hardest thing. You get motivated off your attack when you have these great moments, and you're like, right now defend, let's get the ball back. Whereas they're mostly just defending, but they stay in it. And we've seen them, you talk about those tries. Yes, they haven't scored many, but they're coming at the end of the game. Now, yes, you could say, okay, well, the opposition have built up such a lead that maybe they're pulling off a little bit. All right. Or you could say, sales sharks are staying in it. They're keeping their heads up. They're still looking for every opportunity to the very last minute. And you've got players like that.

With that understanding, that work ethic, that commitment, they've got a good build, they've got a good foundation to grow from. And you look at a club like Queen's, you've got a lot of strength and depth, they've got a lot of people competing for the same shirts. The Sail Sharks have got a much smaller squad and I think it's key for them to keep everybody fit so that they can have what competition for shirts that they do have. It might be that it's one and a half to two players playing for each shirt rather than two or three.

And so I think they really want to stress that they have this smaller squad. They're making it work in their own way. And yeah, they've still got decent standout performers. I think they're really pleased to have Lizzie Duffy back. Holly Thorpe for sale beat four more defenders than any other player in round seven, total of 10, made three clean breaks and scored a try. And yeah, I just think that they are doing things their own way. And this is, as Rachel told me, it is a game that they're targeting.

I also actually would just like to mention that there is not some casual sexism at play here because I realized listening back to Rachel, to the chat with Rachel, I didn't ask her about the Wales job where I did with Sean Lynn. And I just wanted to tell our PowerPod listeners that, yeah, the chat with Rachel came about very last minute. was really helpful of her and Katie Daley-McLean to basically say, yeah, okay, we could spare you about eight minutes now if you want to jump on and chat.

So yeah, for their kindness, I didn't then want to sort of, you know, proverbially push Rachel up against the wall and go, and what about the Wales job? I wanted to have a nice little chat with them and say, look, thanks for your time and Nick off. So yeah, it was more the circumstance of the chat that I didn't want to go full journo style and ask Rachel about it, but not because I don't think that she doesn't deserve to have her name in the reckoning. I just wanted to get that said, Philippa. I'm an equal opportunities man.

The Power Pod (39:55.966)
She has every right to be asked about the Wales job as Sean Lynn did, but I just wanted to... just scared a Katie Daniel McLean, you are. You know, your phone will be blowing up. Yeah. So, so there we are. So that is the big one on Sunday.

Table after round seven then Chiefs top with 33 and they've still yet to play their bi-weeks similar with Queen's obviously Chiefs have that this week and then it's Gloucester-Harprey in third on 22, Bristol 21 same as Saracens on 21 and then there's that nine point gap to Loughborough Lightning on 12, Trail Finders 11 and then those two teams without a win yet Tigers and Sharks at the bottom of the table and I think you know that that win for Queen's has really impacted how that table looks we talked about

that gap and perhaps a responsibility of Loughborough Lightning to try and close it if they still have, well, they will have those top four ambitions. yeah, as those bye weeks finally conclude, we're to have a much better look at how that table works out, aren't we? Yeah, certainly. And I think it puts even more emphasis on the Gloucester-Harbury-Bristol game when you consider that there's only one extra win between them and the top two in extra Chiefs and Harlequins. So that win now.

becomes even more important in regards to the table. And if you have genuine ambitions to be right at the top, you've got to get a win in this next game. Yes. And it really is a season that sort of split into thirds, isn't it? We sort of had that first round of six games. Now we've got this sort of run through to Christmas. And then we pick up with round 12 in January and that ultimately just then runs through to the mid end of Feb in a full block. And then it's semis of final time.

come March. So teams are really looking at this blocks as its own thing, what they can do now and get whatever points on the board until Christmas and then go. So yeah, this season is slipping by in an absolute flash already. Already we're up to round eight. So yeah, some big games this weekend. Absolutely. And remember guys, the power line. Get in touch with us. How do you think the season's going? Who do you think is going to be in that top four? Who do you think?

The Power Pod (42:08.098)
could also have been up there for World Rugby's Player of the Year. Who do you want to give a nod to? You can get in touch with us on 07 08 07 1 6 2 1 9. Yes, you can indeed. OK, our one question this week. Well, Bea Rigoni last week gave us her love of Biggoli Al Raghu and she wanted to know what are the favourite boots of Saracenzi's fly-half Zoe Harrison. So let's head to North London for a response. And this week's...

One question. Hi, Power Pod. Zoe Harrison here. Thank you to Bea for my question. My answer is the Nike Mercurials. I like the one that's out right now, which is a Blueboo. And now for my one question, I would like to ask Mohunt Natasha Hunt at Gloucester, what's your favourite first date spot? Thanks.

wow. wow. Kind of have a feeling that Zoe's just throwing Mo under the bus, but I cannot wait to hear the answer for this one. Do think there's some kind of knowledge in there or something? yeah, I think there's a story. There's definitely a story. If there is, I doubt we're going to get through No. So that will be a good one. We will try and get a of Mo Hunt ahead of next week. Okay. Any other business, Phil?

There were other award winners of course, we haven't talked about the Dream Team 59 PWR players in that one. Hope Rogers, Maud Muir, Zoe Orcross, Sophie de Goody, Alex Matthews. I really pleased to see Sophie de Goody in there despite obviously the injury she's had. Shows how good she was for the part of the season. She was fit. And then in the backs, Holly Aitchison, Alex Tessier, Abby Dow, Ellie Kildun. It says a lot about this league that it is allowing those players to perform at that level on the

international stage. And this is a little bone I've got to pick because I get that probably the best players in the world are going to be playing international rugby. you know, all the highlights reels you see from from the awards and the build up and everything, everything is international rugby. I mean, some of these players are tearing up trees at club level as well. I think it would be nice to be able to have a bit of recognition of them at that level and what they're doing. I guess, know, world rugby just seemed to be

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interested in their international affairs and they seem happy enough with that. Yeah, I think so. When I was there and I watched all the footage of all the players, yeah, it would have been nice to have had a touch of their club level, but I guess you've also got the argument that some people really stand out at club level, but then what makes them the best in the world is the fact they stand out at international level. know, how many times have you seen club players and gone, this player's got to play, he's got to play, he's got to play. And then they step up and you're like, actually they weren't missing.

You know, so maybe that's the, the, the angle that they're coming from with that. But yeah, nine PWR players. That's insane. Isn't it? Yeah. Feather in the cap. PWR. Well done. right. Do you have a power play for us? I certainly do. So my power play this week goes to Leicester Tigers. I alluded to it earlier in regards to their defense. Honestly, I was really impressed how much they stayed in the fight and they just hustled.

Loughborough Lightning. And there were a couple of individuals, Julia, Amakwale, again, shooting up, making those spot tackles. Talia Brody, also the same, but it was the fact that when they shot up and they made these hits, it wasn't like they had to look behind them to find the rest of the team. Everyone else pushed up and at times they were just marching Loughborough Lightning back and putting that pressure on and forcing errors. And that takes a lot of effort, a lot of fitness to be that person on that line going, I am off, I am shooting up, I'm making that hit.

but for the rest of the team to back them up as well in what was a tough game and it's been a tough season for the Tigers. But for them to show that resilience and that doggedness in defence, I'll take my hat off to them. Awesome effort, OK, so Leicester Tigers winning at P.T.'s power play. Is that the first time we've had a club winning your power play rather than an individual? Well, no. Well, kind of.

I gave it to Bristol. I gave it to Bristol management players for signing Emeril, didn't I? Round one. that was very much the management players. Yeah, yeah. But this is like the whole, this is a power play for everyone on the field and what they did on the field. If that makes sense. There we go. Caleb is in fits. it's my power play. I can give it to who I want, when I want. All right, come on now.

The Power Pod (46:53.23)
Not that we've gone back and re-edited this when we realized that there was a team. But anyway, you at home won't hear that version. Okay, any other business, Philippa? We have the return of the Gallagher Premiership, the URC. know where you do some of your work. I will be obviously up in Manchester on Sunday. Where are you this weekend? I'm actually in Gonna get a little bit more sunshine. Yeah, so it's the start of the HSBC 7 series kicking off in Dubai, the men's and women's together.

Obviously Giselle Maither, sorry, Giselle Maither, yeah. Obviously Giselle Maither's first official tournament in charge. They had that sort of warmup tournament, they, in Elchi? But this is now the start of her first professional sevens season. So I'm hoping to catch up with her at some point. It'll be interesting because a lot of the teams on the sevens series are gonna look very different. A couple of the girls that were at the awards, Olivia Rapps, she is captain of the Canadian sevens team.

she's not going to be there. So a lot of players, think, are prioritizing the 15s, the World Cup and playing in the domestic league. Jasmine Joyce, not there. Meg Jones, not there. So yeah, it'll be a different looking team, which basically means for me, I need to start prepping now because there are going to be a lot of names that I don't know. Yes. Good luck with that. Well, it's been lovely to have you with us. We

We also over the course of the last week had some lovely comments on our last episode. Don't know what we did magically brilliantly and we've probably not done it this week. Who knows? But I always think that a good podcast episode is like a great cup of tea. You're never quite sure why it's that much better than the others, but you just hope you can keep up your standards. So we hope you've enjoyed this episode. Please do like, subscribe, tell your mates, leave review, all of the stuff that podcast people tell you.

to do. I've been Nicky, that's been Philippa Tuttiet and the PowerPod is a level production produced by Caleb Matamba. We'll see you next week. Bye.