Gardens ‘inspiring’ Lightning and next generation, says Malcolm

Loughborough Lightning captain Rachel Malcolm is looking forward to seeing how the partnership with Northampton Saints will continue to thrive in the coming years.

Saints and Lightning officially joined forces in September 2021 and this season the link grew stronger with all of Loughborough’s Allianz Premiership Women’s Rugby games being staged at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens.

During their first league match at the venue against Bristol Bears, Lightning also wore their new Black, Green and Gold alternative jerseys for the first time.

A strong crowd was also present at the Gardens for the PWR clash with Exeter Chiefs two days before Christmas. While the result went the way of the visitors, Lightning were cheered on by a vocal home support with many staying on after the final whistle to take selfies and get items signed by the players.

“The crowd was brilliant,” said Malcolm. “A big part as to why all of us play is to inspire as many people as possible to come along and be involved in women’s rugby.

“To see the numbers growing game on game is incredible for us and it is really inspiring for us to play in front of. You could hear them behind us and the excitement of the game, it’s really cool. 

Lightning have already played nine competitive games this season with four Allianz Cup fixtures preceding their first five rounds of PWR action.

Victories over Leicester Tigers and Sale Sharks have been countered by losses to Saracens, Bristol and Exeter but the performances across those matches have shown a clear indication that the team is heading in the right direction under head coach Nathan Smith.

“Nathan has instilled a new identity in us,” said Malcolm. “We are not the biggest team in the league so we have to be pretty good technically but also have to get off the line and take away as much space as we can so opposition ball carriers can’t get going.

“I think in the first half against Exeter we didn’t get off the line as well as we could have, so in the first 20 minutes they got more metres than we would’ve liked. But I think in the second half we fronted up massively and took a step forward there.

“We are a developing team at the minute, we’ve had a lot of changes, but in the last few weeks we’ve made some huge steps forward which is a good place for us to be in going into the new year.”

The players are currently on a week off over the Christmas period before returning for a couple of huge tests on the road, starting with a trip to defending PWR champions Gloucester-Hartpury on Saturday 6 January followed by another journey south to Harlequins a week later. Their next match at the Gardens comes against Trailfinders Women on Saturday 20 January.

Malcolm missed the Cup games while away leading Scotland to WXV2 glory in South Africa but has returned to start all five rounds of PWR action going into the festive break.

“It has been a really tough block, especially with the standard of the league at the minute, every single game is super intense,” said the 32-year-old back row. “It’s an impressive showing for women’s rugby but it is also a really hard physical test.

“The rest is really important, we’ve taken huge strides forward in the past two weeks. We’ve got Gloucester first week back which is obviously a tough start to the year but we’re feeling in a good place and the biggest thing for us is to put ourselves in a position where we can go out fresh and push on.”