Loughborough Lightning ‘held up their end of the bargain’ of their double header with partner club Northampton Saints, according to head coach Nathan Smith.
Before the dust had settled on Saints’ thrilling 35-34 victory over Bath, Lightning created a slice of club history with their 22-17 win being their first-ever over Saracens.
A record Lightning crowd of 2,100 remained in their seats at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens to witness back-to-back bonus point successes.
“When we came out and warmed up, it was really pleasing to see so many people had stuck around to watch our game, so a big thank you to all of them,” said Smith.
“The ground was rocking after a great win for Saints against Bath and I think we held up our end of the bargain.
“I hope the people who watched were entertained by what was a great game of rugby.”
Nathan Smith
Lighting led 17-10 at the break courtesy of Krissy Scurfield‘s pair of tries that came either side of Sadia Kabeya marking her 50th Lightning appearance with five points.
Emily Scarratt and Akina Gondwe traded tries in a low-scoring second period as Lightning closed the gap on fifth-placed Bristol Bears with five rounds remaining of the Premiership Women’s Rugby season.
“I am extremely happy for the girls, they have put so much effort in this year and probably not got as many rewards as they deserved. I am chuffed for them,” added Smith.
“I think we are growing as a team and developing week on week, which we’ve always said, performances have been growing. Having people like Rachel Malcolm and Courtney Holtkamp coming on that 45-minute mark was huge, because it means we can keep the foot to the throat. I thought the replacements were really good today.
“We are under no illusions we’ve been a bit soft from five metres out this year. Today we had a bit of an onslaught from Saracens and we dealt with it which was extremely pleasing to see.
“We have got performance goals we have been going after and keeping incrementally improving our performances is the main goal and keep the points coming.”
Lightning travel to Gloucester-Hartpury on Saturday 11 January before returning to cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens for their penultimate home league game of the season on Sunday 19 January against Exeter Chiefs – for ticket information, please click HERE.
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