'We’ve just got to keep the foot on the throat': Kabeya eyes improvement for Lightning

Sadia Kabeya could see the positives on her team’s 24-21 loss to Bristol Bears at the weekend. Even if a defeat on her birthday was frustrating.

The 24-year-old notched her sixth try of the Premiership Women’s Rugby season in the defeat, in which she made her return from an injury sustained at the end of 2025.

Even though Lightning got themselves a losing bonus point on Sunday afternoon after they watched Bristol overturn a 16 point deficit in the final throes of the contest, the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup winner took plenty of positives from defeat.

“I think we expected a lot from ourselves this season,” Kabeya told Loughborough Lightning. “Last season we might have come away from that game being happy with that performance, but this year we know we can do so much better and so much more.

“Respectfully to Bristol, I think we could’ve been the ones to win that and should’ve been the ones to win that. I think we will definitely take the positives away from the first half of that game and the first 20 minutes of the second half.

“There’s frustration overall, but we have a week of to rest and analyse from here. With the league now, anything can happen, we’ve just got to keep the foot on the throat and focusing on ourselves.”

A key part of this resurgent Loughborough side, Red Roses flanker Kabeya will be hoping to end the club’s five year hiatus from semi-final rugby. The East Midlanders are currently 10 points adrift of fourth-place Harlequins and have a game in hand on the Londoners.

It will be tough to bridge the gap. In their next four games before the international break, Nathan Smith’s side will face off with a resurgent Sale Sharks, Harlequins, three-time champions Gloucester Hartpury and fellow top four chasers Trailfinders Women.

“We’ve got two really exciting games ahead,” Kabeya said. “The last two games against Sale and Harlequins were really, really close, with the win against Sale and the loss against Harlequins.

“It is still all to play for. It is all about focusing on ourselves and getting back to our best. There’s going to be battles at Sale Sharks and Friday night lights here, we are super excited.”