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Three talking points from Round 8 of the 2025/26 PWR season
By Joe Harvey
After this weekend Premiership Women’s Rugby will have a five week hiatus for the winter.
As a ‘see you later’ goes, Round 8 was not a bad one. The four games have left the league on a knife edge. There are six teams well and truly in the title race, one other contender and two teams with a lot to work on in the time off.
So, while top flight domestic women’s rugby takes a break, here’s last look at PWR until the end of January.
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Here are three talking points from Round 8…
Gloucester Hartpury continue to set the standard
Just as you thought Gloucester Hartpury had set the benchmark for success they manage to do something else.
At the final whistle of a 75-12 win over Leicester Tigers at Mattioli Woods Welford Road the back-to-back-to-back PWR champions had racked up their 18th league win in a row. The last time they experienced defeat was against Bristol Bears at Kingsholm Stadium in November 2024.
It is another one of those untouchable, difficult things to describe which has been achieved by Dan Murphy’s side over the past 13 months.
Perhaps unsurprisingly it is not only a league record but a club one too. When that winning streak could end is anyone’s guess. Maybe in mid-March when the West Country side travel to Saracens. Maybe.
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What has made Gloucester Hartpury so exceptional is their undying commitment to their standards. Combined with the possession of a litany of world class talent, it has taken the side to the next level. And will continue to do so for some time.
Kildunne sends Bears into dark hibernation
Wherever you looked last week Ellie Kildunne’s name was there. Somewhere.
To cap off a sensational solo 2025, in which she won a Women’s Rugby World Cup for England’s Red Roses and finished as runner-up for BBC Sports Personality of the Year, the full-back enjoyed a Player of the Match performance for Harlequins at Big Game 17.
That Midas touch was on display as the West Londoners secured third-place in the league as we enter this spell off.
She crossed the whitewash as Ross Chisholm’s team finished the match as 38-12 winners at Allianz Stadium, as Liana Mikaele-Tu’u, Lauren Torley, Claudia Pena and Freya Aucken all dotted down.
Another five points bagged for those in quarters, but for Bristol another long coach ride home with nothing to show from 80 minutes on the turf. It is, honestly, hard to pin down exactly what is in the water of Scott Lawson’s side.
Injury is the main thing that you come to. Phoebe Murray, for so long the lynchpin in their midfield, is out. As are Lana Skeldon, Holly Phillips, Delaney Burns, Rownita Marston-Mulhearn and Jenna De Vera.
That list, when available, is a spine of a team. Midseason arrivals Ruahei Demant and Pam Buisa do add quality but are glossy sticky plasters for a side that have struggled to compete in every game but one (their 74-0 win over Leicester Tigers in Round 2) this season.
After last week’s defeat the side have conceded 242 points in their past six matches. In that same period, they have scored just 86 and registered no bonus points.
Usually, you drop into the normal cliches; the pack are being bullied at the set-piece. Something like that.
Actually Bristol have made the least scrum offences in the league (nine). Women’s Rugby World Cup winners Hannah Botterman and Sarah Bern are their starting props. Their lineout is the third-best in the league too. It is a set-piece they have used 97 times across seven matches.
This winter break could not have come soon enough for Bears. Without a productive five weeks off, it seems like Bristol’s four year early summer sojourn to the semi-finals will not return in 2025/26.
This top four race may be the best yet
Eight rounds into the season and there is a feel that the table has started to cement itself. Saracens and Gloucester Hartpury (both 35 points) are established at the top of the league table and there are four teams firmly in the race.
After a slow start to the season, Harlequins (23 points) are not in third after three successive wins. Exeter Chiefs (21 points), who have sizzled with attacking vigour to begin the campaign.
Those two, as things stand, are in pole position to play semi-final rugby this season. A couple of rungs down the ladder you find Loughborough Lightning (21 points) and Trailfinders Women (20 points).
On Sunday afternoon Lightning and Trailfinders met at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens and could not be separated.
A late flurry of tries in the East Midlands saw a Helen Nelson conversion of Fancy Bermudez’s level the score with the clock in the red.
Even in seventh-place with 12 points, Sale Sharks are by no means out of the fight and will be emboldened by their 36-17 defeat to Saracens on Sunday in which they showed real spirit and grit at Morson Stadium.
There has never been more competitiveness. It makes 2026 so intriguing. Even if we have to wait a little bit for the action to restart.
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