{"id":85322,"date":"2025-08-22T15:38:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T15:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/85322\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T15:38:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T15:38:11","slug":"team-news-new-look-tigers-side-for-cup-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/85322\/","title":{"rendered":"Team News | New-look Tigers side for Cup opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

The matchday squad for our PWR Cup opener against Bristol Bears at Burton RFC has been named.<\/p>\n

Jenny Maxwell<\/a> captains a side featuring twelve debutants, with six included in the starting side for Sunday’s match.<\/p>\n

In the pack, Danni Solly (prop) and\u00a0Hermione Farmer (flanker) are the new faces, while in the backline, the wing duo of\u00a0Amelie Anstead and\u00a0Karolina Kacirkova, and the centre-pairing of\u00a0Abbie Lamb and Abileigh Priestnall are the debutants.<\/p>\n

Partnering Maxwell is fly-half Ellie Turner<\/a>, who returns to action for the club to add her to 12 appearances, while Tess Feury<\/a>, who was unlucky to miss out on selection for the USA squad in the Women’s Rugby World Cup, starts at full-back.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Solly is joined up front by Alana Bainbridge<\/a> (hooker) and Nadine Vincent<\/a> (prop), while the second row features Leah Heath and Kat Turner<\/a>, with the latter to make her first appearance for two seasons after missing the 24\/25 campaign through injury.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The starting back row includes debutant Farmer, Jordan Russell<\/a> (flanker), and Tiana Gordon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the bench, six players –\u00a0Alicia Watkins,\u00a0Lauren Poole,\u00a0Beth Taylor,\u00a0Summer Reeves,\u00a0Eneka Labeyrie,\u00a0Grace Deane – are in line for their club debuts, with Ella-Mae Fereday and Sarah Nicholas<\/a> the only players with previous experience for the Tigers\u00a0included among the replacements.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking ahead of the game, Director of Women’s Rugby Fraser Goatcher\u00a0said:\u00a0“We are thrilled to get going. The players have worked incredibly hard over the pre-season, and I have been\u00a0delighted with their effort, commitment, and the connection this new group has built in such a short time.”<\/p>\n

“With so many new players, it is even more important that\u00a0we translate the\u00a0work rate and togetherness they have shown in training into a competitive match environment.”<\/p>\n

On taking the game to Burton RFC, Goatcher added: “The opportunity to take our PWR Cup home games to the local community is brilliant for us as a group and the renewed energy and commitment to the women’s programme at Leicester Tigers. It’s going to be a great day out at a proud club, which we are all excited to be a part of to kick off a new season.”<\/p>\n

MATCH INFORMATION<\/p>\n

Date: Sunday, August 24
Time: 2.00pm
Venue: Burton RFC (DE13 9FF)<\/p>\n

STARTING XV<\/p>\n

15 Tess Feury [28]
14 Amelie Anstead *
13 Abbie Lamb *
12 Abileigh Priestnall *
11 Karolina Kacirkova *
10 Ellie Turner [12]
9 Jenny Maxwell (c) [16]
1 Danni Solly *
2 Alana Bainbridge [23]
3 Nadine Vincent [15]
4\u00a0Leah Heath [6]
5\u00a0Kat Turner [19]
6 Jordan Russell [14]
7\u00a0Hermione Farmer *
8 Tiana Gordon [10]<\/p>\n

REPLACEMENTS<\/p>\n

16 Alicia Watkins *
17 Lauren Poole *
18 Ella-Mae Fereday [12]
19 Beth Taylor *
20 Summer Reeves *
21 Eneka Labeyrie *
22 Sarah Nicholas [20]
23 Grace Deane *<\/p>\n

*\u00a0 Leicester Tigers debut<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The matchday squad for our PWR Cup opener against Bristol Bears at Burton RFC has been named. Jenny…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-85322","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}