Loughborough Lightning’s hard yards in a ‘tough’ training week paved the way for a brilliant away victory at Sale Sharks, according to prop Katie Trevarthen.
Coming off the back of a disappointing home loss to Bristol Bears in Allianz Premiership Women’s Rugby Round 4, Nathan Smith’s side bounced back emphatically to defeat Sale Sharks 24-12 at Heywood Road on Saturday afternoon.
“We’re really happy with the win,” said Trevarthen, who is in her seventh season with the Club. “We had a good training week, probably quite a tough week as well as a group, but we felt in a good place, going into the game. That was evident in the first half, and we did what we needed to in the second half, so it was a great outcome.
“Throughout this week, we were talking about having a collective energy, celebrating the little wins and that was definitely seen in the first half, and it got us to really good areas, and helped us execute as well.”
Katie Trevarthen
After suffering the ill-effects of a slow start in that Bristol loss, Lightning learned their lesson and inflicted some early pain on the Sharks with Daisy Hibbert-Jones crossing early into the encounter before Carmela Morrall’s brace opened a 17-0 lead at the break.
Morwenna Talling and Nikita Prothero landed tries for the home side in the second period but it was those in African Violet shirts who were celebrating a bonus-point win come the final whistle as Cath O’Donnell marked her return to the side by registering their crucial fourth try.
“We did what we needed to do,” added Trevarthen. “It’s not always going to be pretty, and Rachel Malcom (Lightning captain) talks about purple patches in a game and coming through those. And a couple of times we put ourselves under pressure, but we were able to come through those and get what we needed out of it.”
Here's how things stand after another blockbuster round of #PWR action 👇@allianzuknews pic.twitter.com/MWDIwY88hp
— Premiership Women's Rugby (@ThePWR) December 16, 2023
The 28-year-old has played in all eight of Lightning’s games in all competitions in the 2023/24 campaign and will be hoping to make it nine on Saturday when last season’s beaten finalists Exeter Chiefs visit cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens.
“I’m really enjoying this season so far, and there are hopefully bigger and brighter things to come,” Trevarthen said.
“We are really excited to be back at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens, it’s going to be a great fixture, and it’ll be a really great crowd, which will hopefully boost our energy and our performance.”
