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Tess Feury: 'If this season has taught us anything, it’s patience. Progress in sport is never linear'
By Tess Feury
There’s a unique kind of honesty and accountability that comes with a tough rugby season.
In sport, people love stories about winning streaks, playoff pushes and dramatic matches. But the reality is, most seasons aren’t like that. Sometimes you’re the team chasing, learning, and trying to grow while the scoreboard doesn’t always reflect the work being done behind the scenes.
That’s been our reality this year with the Premiership Women’s Rugby season at Leicester Tigers. We’re still searching for that first win.
On paper it doesn’t look pretty. We’re at the bottom of the PWR table and the score lines in a few games have been bigger than any of us expected at the start of the year. In a league where many teams are stacked with internationals and years of experience in the league, every week is a serious test.
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But inside the group, the feeling is a little different.
Yes, the results on the weekends often sting. No one enjoys walking back into the changing room after another tough scoreline. But if you were to spend a week with our team, you’d see something that doesn’t show up in standings or headlines. The effort has not dipped, the belief has not disappeared and honestly if anything, it’s become more apparent.
There’s a different kind of fight that comes when things aren’t going your way.
Training weeks have actually been some of the best we’ve had. There’s been an edge to them and the conversations are honest. Nobody is pretending the season has gone how we hoped. But nobody is giving up on it either. This team has taught me that resilience can be quiet.
I see so many examples of this in our daily training environment. Such as the forwards hitting another lineup rep after months of drilling it. Our lineout success is top of the league and is something we are so proud of.
Or our backs coming in early to work on kicking and edge defence after many of them having been at work all day. We have players on our team who are doctors, teachers, painters, project managers and so much more. Even things such as teammates checking in with each other after a tough match and still showing up ready to go again on Monday. This is the resilience the world outside of the team doesn’t see.
One game that really highlighted what this group is capable of came a few weeks ago against Ealing Trailfinders. It didn’t end in the scoreline we wanted, but it was one of those matches where we saw clear signs of the rugby we know we can play.
We scored three tries that day, and what stood out most was how different each one was. The first came from a driving maul. It was the kind of forward dominance that takes real cohesion and patience. Micke Gunte, a South African international, was able to dot it down for us.
The second came from a first-phase starter move straight from a set piece. Everything clicked in that moment. The timing, the line and a dominant, determined never-give-up finish by Jemima McCalman was truly world class. It’s the kind of try that reminds you when you put your head down and run with intent, nothing can stop you.
And the third was a defensive effort on the final play of the game. A blocked kick that turned into a chase-down try, with players reacting in a split second to race after the loose ball. Georgie Lingham dotted it down with no time left on the clock.
PWR
P
W
L
D
PF
PA
PD
BP T
BP-7
BP
Total
1
Gloucester-Hartpury Women RFC
12
12
0
0
60
2
Saracens Women
13
11
2
0
56
3
Exeter Chiefs Women
13
6
4
3
41
4
Harlequins Women
13
5
7
1
35
5
Sale Sharks Women
13
5
7
1
33
6
Trailfinders Women
12
4
6
2
32
7
Loughborough Lightning
12
4
6
2
30
8
Bristol Bears Women
12
4
7
1
25
9
Leicester Tigers Women
12
0
12
0
1
After that try, I was able to slot a tough conversion from the five-meter line to seal seven points for the team. The hugs I received from my teammates after that kick reminded me why I love this sport and how much value our team has in each other.
Three tries, three completely different pictures of rugby.
For us, it was an important reminder that we can execute in a lot of different areas of the game. Our forwards can create momentum, our attack can come together off structured plays, and we can still capitalize on those chaotic moments that rugby always throws at you. Yes, the score lines demonstrate we are new to this league and we have a lot to grow into. But, those small moments matter during a season like this. They’re the pieces we hold onto when the overall results are not going our way.
We have two games left before the international break for the Women’s Six Nations, and those fixtures suddenly feel pretty important. Not because they can magically rewrite the season, but because they’re another opportunity to show what this group is building.
This weekend we’re back at home against Exeter. We had a strong performance against them earlier in the season and showed we can compete with them for long stretches of the game, so there’s definitely motivation to disrupt their season a little bit and put together a full performance in front of our home crowd.
Then we finish this block of games away at top of the table and so far undefeated, Gloucester-Hartpury, which is always a challenge. Kingsholm Stadium is never an easy place to go, but it’s also a great opportunity for us to piece everything together versus the very best in the league.
After that comes an eight-week stretch without league games. For most teams that might feel like downtime, but for us it’s going to be a bit of a balance. We will take a few weeks off to physically and mentally rest but then training will continue with the goal of coming back stronger and more connected as a team.
If this season has taught us anything, it’s patience. Progress in rugby, and in sport in general, is never linear. Sometimes you take a few heavy knocks before things start to click. But the commitment inside this group hasn’t changed, and neither has the belief that we can turn the corner.
The outside world might look at the results and see a team struggling but inside our squad, we see a team that’s still fighting.
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