Match-winning Jess Breach try sends Saracens to sixth PWR Final

Jess Breach’s late try for Saracens set up an all-London clash in the Premiership Women’s Rugby Final with Trailfinders Women.

The England international’s try in the 74th minute helped the North London side to a 40-38 win over Exeter Chiefs at StoneX Stadium and to their fifth PWR final.

By full-time Breach had scored a brace alongside teammate Olivia Apps, while Alysha Corrigan and Donna Rose had also made their way over the whitewash. In a fortnight’s time, at the Twickenham Stoop, Saracens will aim to end a four-year hiatus as English champions.

Here are three talking points as Saracens joined Trailfinders Women in the PWR Final…

This game was absolutely relentless

Talk about pressure. This game had bucketloads of it. In the first half there were 59 points scored as the lead changed hands three times in 40 minutes.

No one had really got comfortable in their seat when Claudia Moloney-MacDonald opened the scoring in the third minute. Soon enough Alysha Corrigan and Jess Breach had got over the whitewash, before a Donna Rose and Olivia Apps double punch quelled any notion of Hope Rogers’ score having started a comeback.

Chiefs did get a reprise when Marlie Packer was sent to the sin bin, which paved the way for Amy Rule, Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald and another Rogers effort.

After half-time both teams seemed to remember it was a semi-final. Things were almost nervous when probing forward to further their claim for a second winner-takes-all clash.

Ultimately Apps found her way to the try line to land that first blow. Then fate intervened. When Emma Hardy was judged to have knocked the ball forward before racing to the in-goal area, Exeter perked back up, went to the opposite end of the field and saw Maisy Allen over the try line.

All it took was a moment of brilliance. One player to put a club on her back and put the game beyond any doubt. On Sunday, Breach was that player as she cantered past white jerseys and dotted down to send Saracens to a PWR Final for the sixth time.

You think about what a perfect advert for PWR could look like, this game may have just been it. Saying that, so could Trailfinders Women’s 29-26 victory over Gloucester Hartpury in the West Country earlier in the day.

We were absolutely treated on Sunday afternoon. Hopefully the Twickenham Stoop finale follows suit.

Discipline is a big problem for Saracens

Good discipline and Saracens is not something that generally goes hand in hand. To the extent that you could even argue if Alex Austerberry’s team did not give away so many penalties, their trophy drought would not have gone on so long.

You can even look at Sunday’s semi-final at StoneX Stadium to support this. In the 32nd minute – two minutes after Olivia Apps handed the hosts a 28-12 lead – Marlie Packer was sin-binned for cynical play. While the Harlequins-bound back-row was off the pitch, Exeter turned the tide as they scored tries through Amy Rule and Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald.

When the 36-year-old returned to the pitch she could not stop Hope Rogers make her way over the whitewash and give the Devon club a 31-28 lead. Unable to deal with the added pressures of being a player down, Chiefs were able to pick Saracens apart, utilise their pack and really make a good fist of things.

In the context of this game it took Saracens time to build back their confidence. For such a large chunk of the first half the Londoners were in the ascendancy.

It took a string of Exeter penalties to trap the visitors in their 22m and allow Olivia Apps to showcase why she was named PWR Player of the Season with her second try of the contest.

When the whistle blew for full-time, discipline had not let Saracens down. They reverted to type and outscored their opponents to join Trailfinders in the Final. Just how Trailfinders boss Barney Maddison chooses to approach Saracens is of immense intrigue.

Star power counted at the StoneX

A narrative that has followed Saracens all season is the sheer depth of their squad. The starting line-up Alex Austerberry named for the semi-final contained 12 current international players. Their bench had two more.

This is before you consider that one of those internationals is the current World Rugby Women’s 15s Player of the Year in Sophie de Goede. The current PWR Player of the season in Olivia Apps. Or that four are Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 winners. Six are runners-up. Oh, and assistant coach, Kévin Rouet, was runner-up for World Rugby Coach of the Year last September.

None of this is to say that Saracens should have made the PWR Final in two weeks’ time. Anything but. Exeter were truly in this contest for long stretches.

When it mattered Saracens’ big players showed up. Whether that was Apps’ two tries, which saw the 27-year-old weave her way over the try line or how Jess Breach decided that the game was over in the 74th minute and notched the decisive score.

Those are the moments that define teams. Saracens had enough players on the pitch to provide at least one of those match-winning moments. Two players delivered and now silverware awaits at the Twickenham Stoop.