PWR champion and Olympian swaps Saracens for Exeter Chiefs

Deborah Wills has traded Saracens for Exeter Chiefs ahead of the 2026/27 JAECOO Premiership Women’s Rugby season.

The 35-year-old had two spells in North London, the most recent of which being a one season stay for the 2025/26 campaign as Saracens won the PWR Cup and league. Last season Wills made eight appearances and scored one try.

Wills spent the better part of a decade playing elite rugby sevens after finding rugby aged 21. She spent numerous seasons on the HSBC SVNS Series, won a Commonwealth Games bronze medal in 2018 and represented Team GB at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Oli Bishop, Exeter Chiefs assistant coach, said: “We’re really excited to have Deborah joining us this season. An athlete of her calibre is only going to add value to the competitive programme that we already have.

“It’ll be exciting to see what Deborah can really do with the opportunities we plan to create for her, especially in that wide channel, and she’ll hopefully add a little more speed to an already talented and competitive back-three unit.

“Deborah is not just an incredible athlete, she’s also a very accomplished rugby player having played with GB Sevens for a number of years in some top competitions as well as playing in the league for teams like Bristol and Saracens.

“Having her experience on and off the pitch is going to be huge for us in terms of culture and helping to create an identity and a style of rugby that we hope our supporters as well as our team are excited to see played.”

Wills has also represented former PWR club Worcester Warriors and Exeter’s South West rivals, Bristol Bears.

Wills said: “Chiefs is an iconic west country club, being Cornish it’s my home PWR club and the opportunity to represent Chiefs with a talented group of players is really exciting. I’m looking forward to hunting down the PWR title.”