Lock Courtney Holtkamp revealed that Loughborough Lightning have been focusing on their attitude to tackling top four sides during their Premiership Women’s Rugby 2024/25 season run-in.
While the African Violets’ hopes of finishing in the end-of-season play-off places now seems unlikely – but not impossible – with five rounds remaining, Nathan Smith’s side will have a big say on who will compete in the knock-out fixtures.
In Round 12 they defeated three-time winners Saracens for the first time, before giving double defending champions Gloucester-Hartpury a run for their money at Kingsholm last time out.
Next up they host fourth-placed Exeter Chiefs at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens on Sunday 19 January (kick-off: 3pm) – tickets are available by clicking HERE – before tackling the team immediately beneath them, last season’s defeated finalists, Bristol Bears, in Round 16 at Shaftesbury Park on 1 February the week after a short trip to face Leicester Tigers.
“Over the last couple of weeks we’ve spoken a lot about our attitude,” said Holtkamp. “Saracens, Gloucester-Hartpury, Exeter and Bristol were the top four last season. We’ve got them in quick succession and we are going into these games with that attitude of giving it all we can and putting our best effort in.
“That worked out for the better against Saracens, and I think we also pushed Gloucester around a little bit. The score may not have reflected how the game actually went as it felt pretty even.
“Going into the game against Exeter, we’re really focusing on our attitude to show that we can compete with these top four teams and hopefully beat them, but we know it will not be easy.”
Courtney Holtkamp
The 22-17 win over Saracens marked the start of 40-cap Canada international Holtkamp’s second spell at Lightning, having returned to the club where she made 18 appearances across the 2020/21 and 2021/22 seasons before returning to her homeland.
An impressive display from the bench in that fixture at the Gardens was followed by a start against Gloucester-Hartpury, as the 25-year-old looks set to play a big role in the run-in to the end of the season.
She said: “The reason I came back was because between WXV, this past October, we don’t really have much rugby in Canada during the winter. Our next international tour insn’t until April so it was a bit of a dead space for me in terms of rugby.
“My Canada head coach reached out to me and said Nathan was interested in bringing me back on a short-term contract. So it was too hard to pass up! So I was like, sure, I will come back over and play some games and work on what I need to work on and try and help the team the best they can for the rest of the season.”
Sunday’s game is Lightning’s penultimate outing in front of their own supporters, with the final outing coming in Round 18 when Trailfinders Women are the visitors for Lightning’s first Friday night encounter at the Gardens.
“The fans are so important,” said Holtkamp. “They definitely help with the energy and the atmosphere when you are absolutely exhausted in the 70th minute. You hear the crowd if there’s a big hit or a big run, they give us that second boost of energy when we need it the most. It is great to hear it throughout the entire 80 minutes. They are definitely key and we love having fans there.”
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