13 October 2020

Exeter Chiefs head coach Susie Appleby says Gloucester-Hartpury defeat was ‘a good starting point'

Exeter Chiefs head coach Susie Appleby has called her club’s first league performance against Gloucester-Hartpury ‘commendable’ despite losing.

The Premier 15s returned last weekend where Chiefs lost to Gloucester 34-14 and Appleby says it was a ‘good starting point’ for the club.

She said: "It would have been dreamy to come here and get the win first up. That said, we came here, we wanted to look at ourselves and we wanted to put ourselves out on the field. We did all of that - and in a very commendable way too!

"Everyone knows Gloucester-Hartpury are a very good side and they showed that against us. For us as coaches, however, there were plenty of positives and it's a really good start point for us to build on going into Bristol this week and beyond."

Appleby’s side will have their first outing at their home ground Sandy Park against Bristol Bears this Saturday and she added her club can improve by then.

“We won’t make a huge difference in a week, but we will be better. One of the areas we will look at is our decision-making, just because there were things we could have done in the game that may have brought us greater reward.

“As I said, the good far outweighed the bad and there was some fantastic individuals performances. Linde [van der Velden], as we thought, led by example as skipper, Kate Zackary was outstanding and literally everywhere on the field.

“There were others as well who did well, so it’s a case of us building on that and looking to improve this week.”

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