After Leicester Tigers women claimed their opening victory of the 2024/25 season, a 7 - 19 win away at local rivals Loughborough Lightning, head coach Tom Hudson was delighted with what he saw.
"There’s a real sense of accomplishment and of pride. All of us have stuck to our process and shown clear, demonstrable progress.
"Last week didn’t go the way we wanted it to and we acknowledged that. The two major themes we wanted to focus on were set piece and defence. Today saw the least amount of points we have ever conceded at this level and, in fact, two of our tries came from defensive reads.
"We saw last week, 12 debutants in the side. This week, another debut and three first starts. That’s another 80 minutes of top level game time to develop cohesion, adapt to the speed of play we want and to entrench a commitment to the badge and to each other.
"That's now the benchmark for where we want to be as a team."
As expected for a derby day afternoon, there was a flurry of hard-hitting action throughout as Tigers bared their teeth and held firm at cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens.
"Our physicality is something we pride ourselves on. We love to win collisions.
"When we talk about winning the physical battles, that doesn’t just mean in defence. These battles are in carry power, at every breakdown, they come in the form of doubling up on strong carry threats.
"It’s a massive part of our sport and I couldn’t be prouder of the way the team conducted themselves today."
Offensively, a key weapon utilised by the side was that of cross field kicks, which allowed wings Elin Beaver and Charlotte Daley, both of whom scored tries, to be granted space out wide and beat a narrow Lightning defence.
"Cross field kicks are always part of our arsenal.
"To hit one of those, anywhere on the pitch, takes bravery. We say to the team, if you’re indecisive about what option to take, take the braver option.
"Through this, they (Jones and Nicholas) then identified that the cross field kick could become an in-game strength and they had the bravery to continue to exploit it."
With the PWR Up series now concluded, following a home loss to Sale Sharks and the derby win, the side's attention now turns to the start of Premiership Women's Rugby.
Leicester Tigers get their campaign underway with back-to-back away matches (against Gloucester-Hartpury and Bristol Bears) before returning to Mattioli Woods Welford Road for a mouth-watering Double Header battle alongside the men's team that will see Harlequins travel to Leicester.
"After such a massive physical battle and a really complete performance, the girls have been given Monday and Tuesday off, with optional sessions being run.
"We’ll have Thursday to pore over the analysis together and then we’ll have a big week going into our visit to Gloucester-Hartpury."
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