THIS WEEK... JENNY MAXWELL LOUGHBOROUGH LIGHTNING AND SCOTLAND SCRUM-HALF

Loughborough Lightning and Scotland scrum-half Jenny Maxwell started playing rugby at six. Her grandfather took her down to Leicester Forest East and she never looked back.

She then played for a Nottingham club, Litchfield and Loughborough. When the Premier 15s were founded in 2017 her home side Leicester Tigers didn’t have a team but they have announced this year they are putting one together.

Maxwell says it’ll have a big impact on the local area: “It’ll be huge. Loughborough have announced their partnership with Northampton Saints as well.

“I think it will be brilliant for the women’s game in terms of making it more visible to new fans or people that wouldn’t have watched previously. It’s good for the young girls to have something tangible to aspire to because they are the well known household names in terms of rugby teams. So it’ll be brilliant across the board.”

Maxwell’s Loughborough have had a sluggish start to the season. They have had key absences with Emily Scarratt injured in the opening minutes of their first game and many Scotland players have been away on international duty. Maxwell has said how much that has affected the club’s performance.

“Lougborough haven’t had this kind of dip of form over the time I’ve been there,” the 28-yearold adds. “The opposition we’ve been facing have played really well.

“Experienced players being away gives a good opportunity to the younger girls coming through. Later in the season that will stand us in good stead. Our first three games of the season were Saracens, Harlequins and Wasps which were top three finishers last year. They are class outfits. Those games were always going to be tough. So a little bit of a bumpy start but I have full confidence that performances will start to come.”

A performance that has stood out in Maxwell’s career was Scotland’s recent win over Ireland which bagged a spot at the final World Cup qualifying tournament.

It was Chloe Rollie’s last minute converted try that sealed their win and Maxwell shared her elation when the try was scored. “It was amazing! That game had gone back and forth and Ireland are a really great team. We always love playing them.

It’s always a really competitive match. It was a strange one. Although we were behind in those last minutes the belief in the squad was huge.

“We just never felt like it was out of reach. We had huge confidence that we were able to win.”