WOMEN’S GAME IN FOCUS
Worcester Warriors have produced some impressive performances this season, particularly in their opening match against Saracens where they nearly defeated the defending champions.
Warriors’ execution on the pitch is a step-up from last season and at the heart of the club’s progression is centre Meg Varley. The 21year-old, who signed for them at 16 having previously played for boys club Old Coventrians, Hinckley and Lichfield, said the boost in their game comes from the culture they’re building.
“I think we’ve just got a growing confidence in the team,” she said. “As a squad we have been through quite a few ups and downs together. We’ve had quite a few changes in management and players, coaches, everything.
“That has had an impact on the way we play, like we’re a completely different team now. We’ve built a community around the team and a culture that’s really pulled us through, this year especially.”
Worcester have had to adapt to a change in their game this season as they have had more possession. The increase in attacking play has impacted Varley’s performance.
“It has been quite difficult actually from a personal perspective because we had two, three years where we were just defending the whole time. You are doing so much defensive work to all of a sudden come in and have to attack, it’s so different.
“When you get into the habit of something it’s so difficult to change. All of a sudden you start to get 50 per cent of possession, so our game completely changed as we are now allowed to attack.
“That has had a massive impact. We were probably more slow to start with because we weren’t used to that and it was a bit of a shock. But now it’s implemented in training and we’re confident to go out and get ball in hand rather than just expect to defend all the time.”
While Worcester are improving – in eighth place – Varley, who is studying a postgraduate degree in diplomacy, law and global change at Coventry University, insists they can go higher.
“We started off well against Saracens and DMP as well and then we hit a plateau. All of a sudden we played Gloucester and our performance just went through the roof. That carried on through against Bristol and then against Harlequins where it was a very, very narrow score line.
“I think we had that growth in confidence, it just took us a while to get that and I think if we can carry that on through the rest of the season we will move up a couple of spaces.”