Gloucester-Hartpury 34-19 Exeter Chiefs: Cherry and Whites win Premier 15s final at ‘Queensholm’

Gloucester-Hartpury overcame Exeter Chiefs in a hard-fought Premier 15s final to win their first league title.

Kelsey Jones, Rachel Lund and Sarah Beckett gave Gloucester a 17-7 half-time lead, with Emily Tuttosi replying.

A penalty try after Claudia MacDonald slapped the ball away from danger extended the Cherry and Whites’ lead.

Ebony Jeffries touched down with a late consolation for the visitors but it was the Cherry and Whites, playing in their first final, who deservedly celebrated at the final whistle.

Sean Lynn’s side, who finished top of the league in the regular season, triumphed in front of a record final crowd of 9,668 – in what was the first showpiece played by two teams from outside London.

Kingsholm Stadium, chosen as the venue during the campaign, was rebranded as ‘Queensholm’ for the week to mark the occasion and the match more than lived up to expectations, despite the hot and humid conditions.

There was heartache for Exeter as they fell to their second successive final defeat and failed to add the league title to their Allianz Cup triumph.

Gloucester-Hartpury, who donated their match fees to former lock Ed Slater’s motor neurone disease campaign, came out firing and took the lead in the fifth minute when Jones went over from a driving maul after a line-out.

Co-captain Natasha Hunt, who was influential throughout at scrum-half, almost added another try but was held up by a brilliant Gabby Cantorna tackle.

Number eight Beckett escaped with a yellow card for a thumping tackle on Hope Rogers that could have seen her sent off – and moments later the Chiefs made use of their extra player to send Tuttosi over for a try converted by McGoverne.

That gave Susie Appleby’s side the lead but it was short lived as the busy Hunt fed Lund who crossed in the corner to restore the Cherry and Whites’ advantage.

England international Beckett made up for her sin-binning by powering past two Exeter defenders to score on the stroke of half-time.

Backed by their boisterous fans in the Shed, Gloucester-Hartpury again started at full throttle in the second half.

Their pressure resulted in a penalty try when MacDonald prevented Gloucester competing for a possible try from a cross-field kick, earning herself 10 minutes in the sin-bin.

It then became 14 v 14 when Lund was shown a yellow card after failing to get into the right position to tackle Rachel Johnson.

The Chiefs struck back with a flowing move resulting in McGoverne going over but Sing’s penalty settled Gloucester-Hartpury’s nerves.

Exeter’s Kate Zackary was the fourth player to be sin-binned and the Chiefs scrambled in defence to stop a cramping Tatyana Heard scoring in the corner.

Replacement Neumann went over for the fifth try as Gloucester-Hartpury punished a tiring Exeter defence before the celebrations began in earnest.

Gloucester-Hartpury head coach Sean Lynn: “This is a special group. I have been pleased with them all season. They have just kept going and going and it’s been a long season.

“It shows the character of the individuals that Sarah Beckett and Mo Hunt have. At the beginning of the year they were very disappointed [to miss out on England World Cup selection] and that is sport sometimes, it doesn’t always go your way.

“But they just showed what they can do and what they can control.”

Exeter head coach Susie Appleby: “Today hurts because we are better than that. I’m absolutely gutted at our performance, even more so than last year.

“We won’t solve it today and we haven’t become a bad team overnight but this is a real moment to learn form and move forward.

“We are disappointed now but tomorrow we will be excited about what has happened today from a bigger perspective and everyone will go again.”

Gloucester-Hartpury: Sing; Rugman, Lund, Heard, Venner; George, Hunt (co-capt); Muir, Kelsey Jones, Delgado, Monaghan, Aldcroft (co-capt), Matthews, Lewis, Beckett.

Replacements: Powell, Buggy, Tuipulotu, Learned, Neve Jones, Blackburn, Bridger, Neumann.

Exeter: Doidge; Sinclair, Zackary, Cantorna, MacDonald; McGoverne, Robinson; Rogers, Tuttosi, Menin, Fryday, Leitch (capt), McMahon, Allen, Johnson.

Replacements: Moloney, Turani, Jacoby, Fleming, Jeffries, McDonald, Wilkins, Buchanan.