Gloucester Hartpury host Ealing Trailfinders Women at the 4ED Hartpury Stadium this Sunday 18th October in the final round of Pool B of the JAECOO Next Gen Cup, four months after a 29-26 semi-final defeat at Kingsholm ended their bid for a fourth consecutive Premiership Women’s Rugby title. England captain Zoe Stratford, Tatyana Heard and Sarah Beckett have since left for Sale, and the cup campaign so far has brought a 68-19 win at Harlequins followed by a 47-19 defeat at Bristol Bears.
That opening paragraph tells you the shape of the story. It does not capture how narrowly the whole thing slipped away.
Gloucester Hartpury and Trailfinders met three times last season, and every game was decided by three points or fewer. The Circus won the first, 29th-28th in December. Trailfinders won the other two: 41-39 on 29th May and 29-26 in the semi-final on 14 June.
The first of those defeats was the one that unsettled everything. It was the club’s first league loss in almost 18 months, and head coach Dan Murphy was blunt about it, saying Trailfinders had “shown the rest of the league how to beat us.” Ill-discipline had cost his side in that game, and the following week it got worse. Bristol Bears, who finished the season eighth, won 26-21 at Kingsholm to leave the league leaders with a second defeat in a row.
Murphy still went into the semi-final trusting his group. He said they had “been through a lot of big games,” and saw the rematch as a chance to “right some wrongs.” It did not go that way. Barney Maddison’s Trailfinders, only in their third season, beat the reigning champions at a Kingsholm renamed Queensholm. They conceded 15 penalties to Gloucester Hartpury’s four yet still held on. They then lost the final to Saracens 52-14 on 28th June.
The summer that followed was always going to test the squad. Heard said the club had made her nine years there “so memorable,” and Murphy had already warned his players what was coming. “This group will never be the same again,” he said. Assistant coach Matt Banahan has left for a role with Hartpury RFC, and Wales prop Sisilia Tuipulotu has gone to Harlequins.
The club has not stood still. England’s Alex Matthews, Maud Muir, Emma Sing and Georgia Brock all recommitted, Molly Bunker re-signed, and Italy hooker Vittoria Vecchini has arrived. Eight Gloucester Hartpury players were in England’s World Cup-winning squad, and much of that group remains.
The cup has produced one result of each kind. On 19 September the Circus put 68 points on Harlequins at the Stoop. Two weeks later, at North Bristol RFC, they were 12-7 up after 17 minutes, with tries from Megan Davies and Emma Sing. Then Bristol led 21-12 at half-time and finished with seven tries. Sing scored twice. Bristol’s side was a blend of returning internationals and young talent, so this was not a development team being beaten by a stronger one.
Trailfinders arrive in better form. On 19 September they came from 24-14 down at Bristol to win 28-24, with two converted tries in the last eight minutes. A fortnight later they beat Harlequins 72-19. That is two wins from two and 100 points scored.
The arithmetic is simple. Pool B has four clubs, so each plays three games, and Sunday is the last for both teams. Trailfinders have won both of theirs. Gloucester Hartpury have one win and one defeat, Bristol have beaten the Circus but lost to Trailfinders, and Harlequins have lost both. Only the top two clubs go through, and the pool table, bonus points included, will decide who. The semi-finals are on 31st October and the final on 7th November.
What follows matters more. The league campaign brings a trip to Sale on 21st November, then Loughborough at Kingsholm a week later. A club that won 14 of its 16 league games last season still has to show it can lose three in 16 days and come back stronger.
