'We took our foot off the gas': Mataitoga laments second half performance

Loughborough Lightning’s Bulou Mataitoga rued her team’s lack of second half intensity at the end of their 31-29 loss to Sale Sharks.

The East Midlands club surrendered a 12-point half-time lead in Greater Manchester as second half tries for Sharks’ Erica Jarrell-Searcy, Amy Cokayne, Katie Childs and Gwen Pyrs handed Tom Hudson’s team a third win in a row.

Defeat means that Lightning are now behind Sale and have dropped to eighth in the Premiership Women’s Rugby table.

“First half, we came out strong,” Mataitoga explained. “We went into half-time up on the scoreboard and felt pretty good. But coming out for that second period, we just took our foot off the gas.

“It was a tough second half. In all honesty, they scored two tries right off the bat and levelled the score line.

“It was a tough one to take. But you’ve got to give credit to Sale, they are a great side and to come back from a deficit like that is never easy. That’s just the game of rugby. It’s a full 80-minute game, and that was shown today.”

Next up for Nathan Smith’s Loughborough is a Friday night visit from Harlequins to cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens.

The two teams played out the opening game of the 2025/26 season in October. That evening in West London, Harlequins were 52-42 winners in what was a high-scoring opening gambit for both teams.

All season Loughborough have shown plenty of promise and after the winter break were poised to contend for a top four berth in PWR to end a five year hiatus from knockout rugby.

Even in the wake of defeat the USA Women’s Eagles international did find confidence in her team’s performance.

“When we’re on, we’re so on,” Mataitoga said. “When we’re pulling the ball out the back, like for Alev’s (Kelter) try, or when we’ve got tip runners off the shoulder running hard lines, we’re unstoppable.

“We just need more moments like that, but unfortunately, today wasn’t our day. Once again, credit to the other team, we just couldn’t respond how we needed to that second half intensity, but at the end of the day, I’m really proud of us as a team.”