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Rhona Lloyd ‘exited’ to be back in PWR after finding fulfilment again
By Joe Harvey
Rhona Lloyd is looking forward to enjoying her rugby again when she lines up for Sale Sharks this season.
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The 28-year-old Scotland international is back in Premiership Women’s Rugby after four years playing in France for Stade Bordelais and joins a Sale team that hope to make an impact after a summer of great change in the North West.
Just over a year ago Lloyd received the news that she had not been selected to represent Team GB at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
It was the second time that the Edinburgh native was told that she was not going to the Games after she received the same news in 2021 ahead of Tokyo.
To suggest her omission was a bitter disappointment is putting it mildly.
Over the years the wing had split her time between club rugby and the sevens circuit, and even helped Great Britain qualify for the Olympics at the 2023 European Games in Poland.
In the months afterwards her love for rugby waned and struggled for consistency in this year’s Guinness Women’s Six Nations.
“Honestly, it is hard to describe what a disappointment that was to me,” Lloyd said.
“I’ve reflected a lot on what I’ve defined success as since then. Since I was 12, it was about going to an Olympics and last summer it was that realisation of that’s not happening.
“Part of that’s on me for making my definition of success – something that is so objective and something that is not within our control.
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“Now I’ve redefined success to me, to inspire the next generation, to enjoy what I am doing, to enjoy the journey and finding ways to feel fulfilled without having that marker on the list of things I have done.
“I almost feel like last season I was going through the motions a little bit, whereas this season I kind of feel back to myself and feel like I can really push on.”
Lloyd has spent two weeks with her new club off the back of her exploits with Scotland at the Women’s Rugby World Cup.
Her final action of the tournament was a walk-off try in her team’s 40-8 loss to England’s Red Roses in the quarter-finals of the competition.
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When Sale take on Leicester Tigers in their league opener on Saturday 25 October it will have been over four years since Lloyd last turned out in England’s domestic top flight.
Over three years she ran in tries for fun with Loughborough Lightning and will be bringing some of that firepower to Sharks attack in, by the Scot’s admission, is the best domestic competition in the world.
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“I’m excited to be back in PWR and I’m really excited by Sale’s project,” Lloyd said.
“All of the community work has been really inspiring; I am working in their grassroots game with the Academy. So far it seems like a perfect match.
“I think PWR has just grown monumentally in the past four seasons while I have not been playing in it, and that’s a really attractive product and one that I definitely want to be a part of.
“Off the back of the World Cup, PWR is going to explode. That was definitely a big driver. I think it is undoubtedly the best league in the world.”
It has been a year-long process for Lloyd to feel fully like herself again after her Olympic omission. And in Sale the 28-year-old has joined a team that ticks plenty of those boxes for fulfilment.
The Greater Manchester side have seen a new coaching panel of Tom Hudson, Luke Stratford and Charlie Beckett join the fray, along with 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup winners Holly Aitchison and Amy Cokayne.
These announcements have made it clear that the club are on the hunt for much brighter horizons domestically and to improve on their best-ever finish of seventh in 2022/23.
Performance is just one aspect of what made Sale such an exciting prospect to Lloyd.
“The key thing is how integrated we are with the men,” Lloyd said. “A lot of clubs say that, but Sale really do.
“It is honestly the first club where I haven’t felt second class to the men’s team. We’ve felt like equals. Even things like being in the building at the same time.
“It sounds like the minimum, but you don’t get that at every club. And their community project. They’re so integrated in the local community. They really pride themselves on being the only PWR team in the top half of England.
“I was with a team last season that you were winning every week, and I didn’t know if I was enjoying it. I think that’s not the most important thing to me now, it’s about building and improving as a team and going on that journey.
“That’s one that I know I can go on with Sale and hopefully take the club to a much more competitive place.”
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