Loughborough Lightning

Loughborough Lightning are ever-presents on the Allianz Premiership Women's Rugby stage, playing and winning their first top-flight game against Worcester Warriors back in September 2017.

That first campaign would end with the African Violets finishing just outside the top four, but in the 2018-19 campaign they did make it into the end-of-season play-offs, where they lost out to Gloucester-Hartpury at the semi-final stage.

The Covid-impacted 2019-20 season saw Lightning finish third once more and when rugby returned for the 2020-21 season, they lost narrowly to Saracens in the play-offs.

In the two campaigns that followed, Lightning fell out of the end-of-season knock-out game equation but in 2023-24, under the guidance of new head coach Nathan Smith (who arrived in the summer of 2023), they finished a much-improved fifth place in the table.

The squad assembled is packed with internationals; Emily Scarratt, Helena Rowland, Sadia Kabeya and Cath O'Donnell have earned Red Roses deals for the 2024/25 season while Grace Clifford and Lilli Ives Campion have earned transition contracts.

As many as eight young players have been included in England Under-20s matchday squads too, giving a clear indication that the future is bright amongst the next generation of players at the Club.

Scotland are well represented in the squad too with 'Lightning Original' Rachel Malcolm playing a key role as captain alongside fellow internationals Emma Wassell, Helen Nelson and Christine Belisle.

During the 2023-24 season, Lightning also saw players pick up caps playing for USA, Canada, Wales and Sweden.

Since September 2021, Lightning have been in partnership with Northampton Saints and now play all of their home Allianz PWR games at cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens. A record Lightning crowd at the venue of 1,703 occurred against Tigers in February 2024.