A team's captain is often the bedrock of a side, a stable fulcrum upon which the rest of a side can operate, confident that core will continue to deliver. So, on Sunday afternoon, it came as no surprise that, with Leicester Tigers chasing an opening score in their semi-final matchup, it was captain Natasha Jones who was stone cold in kicking a perfect penalty to touch, providing the platform for a typical Tigers rolling maul.
Following the side's 31-19 win, we caught up with Jones to chat about the match, the opposition and an upcoming date with Twickenham.
Firstly, how was the mood in the camp in the build-up to todays match, have you seen a shift in mentality as we get closer to the game?
Everyone was really focused and it meant we knew exactly what we wanted to do from a gameplan perspective, making sure we were playing our game today. There was a real positivity going into this weekend.
How important was the set-piece in todays match, the team showed real dominance in both the scrum and line-out
They were amazing! They gave us (the backs) really good front-foot ball and allowed us to make more metres as a result. All the forwards were super physical, they dragged us over that gain line and, as backs, gave us the perfect platform.
Regarding the opposition, were there any specific threats you were looking to neutralise today?
We were very aware of their back-three. Consequently, we tweaked our gameplan a little, made sure to punch up the middle first and foremost before we looked to go wide. Again, I feel I have to commend the forwards today, they put a massive shift in.
One consistency throughout was that there were a LOT of jackals on show; is that something you deliberately worked on in the build-up?
Not necessarily this week as I feel like we are always looking for opportunities for turnover ball and it’s one of our key strengths. In that first half they made a massive difference and allowed us to grow into the game, as well as starving them of possession. It showed in that first half with how many points we scored, just how hard the forwards were working at the breakdown and that have opportunities to piut people over in the corner.
Absolutely. You touched on the first-half, what about the second-half; it looked at one point like the game might be slipping away so how important was that Charlotte Fray try?
Amazing. In the second-half we had to ride the wave a little bit, Old Albanian’s came out strongly and really took it to us. But, as I said, we rode it out, got back up there, earned ourselves great field position and that all lead to that carry from Charlotte there. That really settled us again and allowed us to close out the match.
Finally, obviously we always talk about next job and you wouldn’t want to get swept up in the occasion, but, how excited are you to run out at Twickenham?
Absolutely buzzing for it! The journey this team has been on this year has been outstanding so to get to this final is fantastic, I’m very confident.
