It was a case of points galore in Allianz Premiership Women's Rugby last weekend, with a total of 275 scored across the final round of this season’s, the second-most of any round in the league this season, only behind the 280 points which were scored in Round 16.
The matches decided the make-up of this season's semi-finals and this Sunday we have two mouth-watering clashes back-to-back with Saracens hosting Exeter Chiefs at 2pm on TNT Sports and our champions Gloucester-Hartpury re-staging last year's final against Exeter Chiefs, live on TNT Sports and BBC iPlayer.
The Opta Ratings for the season (click here to see the full ratings) show a number of players leading their categories including:
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Top Try Scorer - Abby Dow of Trailfinders - 13
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Top Points Scorer - Emma Sing of Gloucester-Hartpury - 125
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Top Tackler - Sadia Kabeya of Loughborough Lightning - 229
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Most Defenders Beaten - Ellie Kildunne of Harlequins - 76
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Most Line Breaks - Bo Westcombe-Evans of Loughborough Lightning - 25
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Most Lineout Takes - Alisha Butchers of Bristol Bears Women - 92
From a club perspective at the end of the league campaign:
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Saracens scored the most points - 664
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Saracens scored the most tries - 106
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Bristol Bears conceded the fewest of points - 280
With the points flowing there were a number of stand out performances in Round 18 including:
- Trailfinders’ Abby Dow scored three tries against Harlequins, the only Allianz Premiership Women’s Rugby hat-trick of the weekend, with Dow now having scored six tries across her last three games in the competition.
- Bristol Bears’ Reneeqa Bonner beat 13 defenders against Sale Sharks, the joint-most by any player in an Allianz Premiership Women’s Rugby game this season, and the outright most by any player not to feature for the full 80 minutes.
- Loughborough Lightning’s Emily Scarratt directly assisted three of her team’s four tries against Saracens, just the third time a player has provided a hat-trick of assists in this season’s Allianz Premiership Women’s Rugby, alongside Natasha Hunt in Rounds 2 and 14.
- The Trailfinders scored 54 points during their win against Harlequins (54-27), the first time that they have scored 40+ points in an Allianz Premiership Women’s Rugby match since joining the competition ahead of this season – it was the joint-most points a team has ever scored away to Harlequins in the league (also Exeter Chiefs in March 2023).
- Sale Sharks defeated Bristol Bears (27-24) to secure back-to-back Allianz Premiership Women’s Rugby wins for the first time since winning their opening three of the 2022/23 campaign – it was the Sharks’ first league win against the Bears in what was their eighth such meeting (L7 previously).
- Exeter Chiefs (21) and Bristol Bears (20) each made 20+ line breaks at the weekend, just the second and third times that a team has done so in an Allianz Premiership Women’s Rugby match this season, after Exeter Chiefs themselves in Round 11 (24 v Sale Sharks).
- Bristol Bears completed 330 passes against Sale Sharks, the first time that a team has made 300+ in an Allianz Premiership Women’s Rugby match this season – the Bears are responsible for all six instances of a team making 250+ passes in the league this term.
- Leicester Tigers conceded just four penalties against Exeter Chiefs, the fewest of any team at the weekend and half Leicester’s previous lowest tally in the league this term – only Loughborough Lightning have conceded fewer in an Allianz Premiership Women’s Rugby this season (2 v Trailfinders in Round 9).
