CHANGE has surrounded the league this season but not all in a bad way. Last Sunday's Premier XVs final, in which Harlequins beat Saracens 24-17, was broadcast on BT Sport which was the first time the Premier 15s has been on TV.
Gloucester Hartpury scrum-half Natasha ‘Mo' Hunt admits it has been a tough season but feels the momentum has shifted for women's rugby.
She said: “It has been huge. Obviously people have had time to sit back and reflect to really get to grips with what's important to them.
“I think it's been a really welcome change in how many people are now talking about it.”
Hunt says it has been hard mentally to cope this season amid law changes and Covid restrictionss.
She says: “It's been tough to be honest. I'm so, so grateful and chuffed that we managed to get to go out there and play some rugby but just with all the restrictions and everything that came with it it's been, mentally, a really challenging one.
“We are so fortunate that we managed to keep a little bit of normality in a time where a lot of people didn't. I don't take that for granted at all but it has been a strange one for us.”
On the law changes, which included games being reduced to 70 minutes with decreased mauls and scrum, she adds: “I never thought I would sit here and say I miss scrums! But genuinely I really, really miss scrums just for the tactical battle that came with it.
“In terms of when there's a forward pass or a knock-on you would get a scrum anywhere on the pitch but for us it was just a free kick. So you had the whole line in front of you and you would be set as a whole line, there's no space.
“But with scrums, wherever they are on the pitch, the back field has to change to cover the kicking option.
“The tactical battle I really have missed. I know our wingers have as well because we used to get them a hell of a lot of ball which they never really got this season which is a bit of a shame because they are some of our most potent scorFers out there.”
