Lightning hope added 'grit' can take them back to the top four

Loughborough Lightning hope that a newfound grit could send the club back to the Premiership Women’s Rugby semi-finals.

This weekend the club will face-off with Exeter Chiefs in the third round of the new season.

Over the years the East Midlanders have been known as one of the most entertaining and high-scoring teams in PWR. But that has not translated to chances at silverware.

It has been four years since the side last finished in the top four despite possessing a smattering of world class talent in their ranks.

Those three have all now either departed for pastures new or called time on their playing career and Nathan Smith, in his second year as head coach, aims to add a shade of African Violet to the domestic glory charge.

Scotland international Helen Nelson is into her sixth season with Loughborough. She was one of the few players to have enjoyed a top four finish.

After she helped her country to a quarter-final finish at this year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup the 31-year-old noticed a shift in attitude upon her return to the club.

“It’s all well and good having a good team on paper, but we’re definitely sick and tired of people underestimating us a little bit and thinking that we’ll rollover easy,” Nelson said.

“We have a good amount of grit and determination about us. I think that is the difference that wins you games.

“I would say it’s something that we’ve been quietly chipping away at over the years and I’d say it’s coming into its own now.

“Hopefully that is what gets us that top four spot is having that bit more edge about us and more grit.”

The person charged with adding this extra edge to Lightning is Rachel Taylor. After her exit as Sale Sharks coach last season she aligned with the East Midlanders as defence coach.

It was not hard to see why. With a whole host of talent at their disposal, including Women’s Rugby World Cup winners Sadia Kabeya and Lilli Ives Campion, it is a task that Taylor has grasped with both hands.

“I’ve always felt that Loughborough managed their defence,” Taylor said. “They’ve always been known for their attack.

“The chance to come and give Loughborough a defensive identity I think is really cool. I know here, there’s some of the best defenders in PWR, so let’s make sure they’ve got a system and a group around them that really want to highlight that.”

Already Loughborough have shown the hot and cold of their new defensive identity.

In the season opener against Harlequins, they were 52-42 losers and a week later got off the mark with a hard-fought 19-12 win over Sale at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens.

But in so much that Taylor has been asked to provide extra physicality and supremacy while not in possession of the ball, it does not mark a change of mindset or an abandonment of the attacking style which has allowed Lightning to be one of the exciting teams to watch in the league.

“For me, it’s about creating the hunger to want to defend,” Taylor said. “Not to defend for long periods of time – we want to defend because we want to get the ball back as fast as we can so we can attack again.

“The ethos is the same. We want to be known for an attacking brand of rugby. We have to have the ball in order to do that.”