PWR Final preview: Women's club rugby royalty take on the newcomers

Premiership Women’s Rugby will complete the circle it started when the competition launched in 2017/18 when Saracens take on Trailfinders Women in this season’s PWR Final at the Twickenham Stoop on Sunday.

That first season Saracens lifted what was then the Premier 15s trophy when they defeated Harlequins 24-20 in the final at Trailfinders Sports Ground. Five years before the team that now call the venue home came into being.

Victory kicked off a golden period for the North London club. They went on to win three of the next four titles. Ahead of the 2023/24 season, the league rebranded as PWR and Trailfinders took their first steps into the competition. By then Gloucester Hartpury had claimed the first of their three titles, with Saracens the most recent side to fall to them in last year’s final.

History is unlikely to play a factor in what unfolds in West London, which pitches two teams stacked with elite-level talent against one another.

That said, Saracens appear to have the upper hand. They finished higher in the table, second to Gloucester Hartpury, and beat Trailfinders home and away. Their team also features Sophie de Goede, the World Rugby Women’s 15s Player of the Year, Zoe Harrison, England Rugby’s Player of the Year, and Olivia Apps, PWR’s Player of the Year. In Alex Austerberry they also have a Director of Rugby who has been involved with all of the club’s title wins.

Rugby royalty v the newcomers

Then there is Marlie Packer, part of the winning team in 2018, who is playing her final game for the club before she moves across London to Harlequins. Don’t suggest to her that Saracens are the favourites though, especially as it was Trailfinders who ended Gloucester Hartpury’s hopes of a fourth title.

“You’re in the Final, you’ve got to put your best team out, you’ve got to put your best foot in front of the other and put your best performance in,” Packer told RugbyPass. “We played Trailfinders away early on in the season, and that was probably the first time we gelled. We put a real performance on, and we knew that we could have a really special team and go all the way this season.

“We then played the last game of the regular season, and Trailfinders put out a very different team than normal. No Meg Jones, no Emma Uren, a very different front-row and pack. We knew that we just needed to perform, and we’re doing our analysis off how they played in the semi-final.”

Fixture

PWR

Saracens Women

52 - 14

Full-time

Trailfinders Women

All Stats and Data

When the final whistle goes at Twickenham Stoop, it will end what has been a major season for women’s rugby. So far the majority of tickets have been sold, and a full-house would be another mark of progress for the sport that featured an 80,000-plus capacity Allianz Stadium for the Women’s Rugby World Cup, a new Guinness Women’s Six Nations record attendance record when England hosted Ireland, and first-time standalone fixtures for Ireland and Scotland at Aviva Stadium and Scottish Gas Murrayfield.

Fourth winner or fourth triumph?

Victory for Trailfinders would mean a fourth name on the trophy and a remarkable rise after 1994 Women’s Rugby World Cup winner Giselle Mather took them into the PWR in 2023. Barney Maddison took over as head coach in 2024, and his impact was shown when the ex-Ealing Trailfinders and London Welsh second row won the PWR Director of Rugby of the Year Award.

“There’s been a huge buzz,” Maddison said. “It’s been a pretty exciting place over the past couple of years. The women’s team is effectively three years old, so it’s, pretty exciting in that sense. We’re still building the fan base, but having both the men’s and women’s team now at the club is huge, and everyone seems to be loving it.

“It’s been a good couple of weeks, but now our feet are firmly on the ground. We’ve got a final coming up, so we’re really looking forward to it.”

Under Maddison, Trailfinders have brought together a squad of household names. Scotland captain Rachel Malcolm has recovered from injury to take part in the fixture, although they will be without Scotland centre Lisa Thompson and Canada full-back Julia Schell through injury.

Household names

Abi Burton and Kate Zackary are well-known figures in the back-row and Malcolm’s injury has allowed Haidee Head to make her mark on the PWR and England’s Red Roses. Black Ferns Georgia Ponsonby and Alana Borland have added their nous to the pack, alongside Emma Wassell, another of the Scottish contingent.

In the backs Canada’s Claire Gallagher will pull the strings at fly-half, namesake but no relation Niamh Gallagher has filled the gap left by Schell’s absence at full-back [albeit Rosie Inman starts the Final], Emma Uren holds the back-line together and Carys Cox provides dash on the wing.

Then there is Meg Jones. A Women’s Rugby World Cup winner, perennial Women’s Six Nations champion, England captain in Zoe Stratford’s absence, and someone who has taken her game to a new level with Trailfinders.

“She’s class,” Maddison said. “ Meg’s not just a class ruby player; she’s a class person. That’s a massive thing and she is a really important part of a team, our culture, and our group. She wants to be a really good person, as well as a really good rugby player, and she epitomises both. Meg’s been class around the girls.

“We’ve always said if we want to achieve anything this year, it will be a squad effort. Gone are the days when the same 15 or same 23 are going to be used every week, because with how the game’s gone and how physical it is, there’s going to be knocks, there’s going to be injuries. It’s a pretty busy season.”

One last push

This time a year ago, Jones, like Packer and all the others involved in the Women’s Rugby World Cup were already into their pre-tournament work. Nine of the players who featured for Saracens and Trailfinders in the semi-finals also played in the World Cup final.

Add in the Women’s Six Nations, and the Pacific Four Series, and you would be forgiven for thinking that fatigue would be kicking in. Packer is planning to head to Spain once the season is over, and Jones will jump on a flight to Greece, but two enthralling semi-finals suggest neither team are feeling any strain.

Trailfinders travelled to Queensholm but silenced the Shed with a 29-26 win. Saracens were pushed to their limit by Exeter Chiefs but held on to prevail 40-38. Rest was the initial order of the day, but over the two weeks both teams have taken time to get preparations right.

“There’s a lot of experience in that group, and even the players who haven’t experienced international level, they’ve experienced knockout rugby,” Austerberry told RugbyPass.

“We’re not going to wrap them up in cotton wool and hide them away from stuff. We play a collision sport, and we’ve got to be battle hardened for the test to come.

“They’ve invested very well, recruited incredibly well, both players and staff, and they’ve got a programme that’s firing. If you look at the names on their roster, it’s no surprise. It’s laden with talent.

“It’s a game of knockout rugby. There’s two teams that have earned the right to be there, and they are two very good teams. We’ve been there before, we finished higher than them in the league, but that counts for very little come Sunday.”

PWR Final squads

Saracens

15 Jess Breach, 14 Alysha Corrigan, 13 Emma Hardy, 12 Sophie Bridger, 11 Sydney Gregson, 10 Zoe Harrison, 9 Olivia Apps; 1 Kelsey Clifford, 2 Bryony Field, 3 Donna Rose, 4 Julia Omokhuale, 5 Laetitia Royer, 6 Gabrielle Senft, 7 Marlie Packer, 8 Sophie de Goede

Replacements: 16 Carmen Tremelling, 17 Liz Crake, 18 Chloe Flanagan, 19 Georgia Evans, 20 Poppy Cleall, 21 Tori Sellors, 22 Amelia MacDougall, 23 Lotte Sharp

Trailfinders Women

15 Rosie Inman, 14 Vicky Laflin, 13 Meg Jones, 12 Carys Cox, 11 Grace White, 10 Claire Gallagher, 9 Isla Norman-Bell; 1 Alivia Leatherman, 2 Georgia Ponsonby, 3 Maya Monteil, 4 Emma Wassell, 5 Alana Borland, 6 Haidee Head, 7 Kate Zackary (C), 8 Abi Burton

Replacements: 16 Cristina Blanco, 17 Annabel Meta, 18 Cassandra Tuffnail, 19 Emma Taylor, 20 Rachel Malcolm, 21 Sally Williams, 22 Brooke Bradley, 23 Niamh Gallagher