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'The worst pitch I’ve ever, ever played on': Sale in spotlight for pitch conditions
By Lucy Lomax
Round 10 of the PWR saw epic clashes, high scoring draws and up in Manchester…a mud bath.
It was a weekend of horrendous conditions, including in Rome for Italy’s Men’s Six Nations clash with Scotland which had consistent driving rain and standing water on the pitch.
The conditions and pitch were not much better at Sale Sharks Women’s home ground Morson Stadium, though it did provide some impressive photo opportunities from both clubs who posted on their social channels after Sharks 7-22 loss to league leaders Gloucester-Hartpury, but Sharks’ key signing of the summer and Red Rose Holly Aitchison was honest on her Instagram page calling it ‘the worst pitch I’ve ever ever played on, it’s only up from here’.
The fly-half kicked over a conversion from a Morwenna Talling score in the bog-like conditions, but the high flying Circus outscored the home side four tries to one, with the northerners having now lost the last four games in a row.
It was evident players saw the funny side with USA international Georgie Perris-Redding taking to Instagram to joke about the conditions, writing ‘just exfoliating’ to her 22.5k followers with a photo of her kit and face covered in mud. The Sale flanker said after the match: “I love it at Heywood Road. I love it even more because people hate it. We’re so proud to call this our home.”
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Gloucester-Hartpury flanker Sam Monaghan spoke after the game saying how much fun she had and that ‘in these conditions you don’t get to do it often’ with a huge smile on her face. “We enjoyed it,” said the Player of the Match. “We knew what we were coming up against and we also spoke about the last couple of years about being mud monsters…and we are definitely mud monsters today!”
However, did the conditions affect the standard of the game and was it a different story for the backs?
You could argue that what the conditions did reduce is the prospect of seeing world class players with any ball in hand such as Asia Hogan-Rochester, Rhona Lloyd and Shona Campbell who were all sadly anonymous in a match much more suited to the purists.
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Foe a match in the top women’s league in England with teams on both sides containing multiple international players, fans took to social media to praise the standard of play in ‘proper rugby conditions’ and the slickness of handling despite the weather and pitch underfoot, with tries for Mia Venner and Emma Sing, showing Gloucester were able to create opportunities despite the difficult conditions.
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Sharks are currently sat two from bottom of the PWR table and have challenging fixtures against Harlequins and Loughborough Lightning coming up in round 12 and 13 at Morson Stadium.
PWR
P
W
L
D
PF
PA
PD
BP T
BP-7
BP
Total
1
Gloucester-Hartpury Women RFC
9
9
0
0
45
2
Saracens Women
9
8
1
0
40
3
Harlequins Women
9
5
3
1
31
4
Exeter Chiefs Women
9
4
2
3
30
5
Trailfinders Women
9
3
4
2
25
6
Loughborough Lightning
8
3
3
2
22
7
Sale Sharks Women
9
1
7
1
14
8
Bristol Bears Women
9
2
6
1
13
9
Leicester Tigers Women
9
0
9
0
1
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