Bristol Bears Women may be underdogs heading into their Allianz Premier 15s semi-final away at table-toppers Gloucester-Hartpury on Saturday, but with the scrum expected a key battleground after the regular season meetings between the two inside the Bears have been getting expert tips and pointers from two England superstars of the men's game.
At Bristol, the men's and women’s rugby is joined up, sharing the same £11.5m High Performance Centre training base since 2021. The advantage of that is Bears Women head coach Dave Ward can lean across the office and bounce ideas off men’s director of rugby Pat Lam, and get tips off the likes of England prop stars Ellis Genge and Kyle Sinckler who are considered amongst the best in the world in their positions.
Speaking in midweek, Ward said: “The atmosphere at the Bears is incredible at the moment, in terms of excitement for us and for the men to come back.
“We have got the likes of Ellis Genge and Kyle Sinckler training around the centre at the moment because they are getting prepped for their World Cup camp. I was sitting there watching scrums and Kyle walked over and said ‘You have got to get her doing this Dave. Make sure Berner [England loosehead prop Sarah Bern] does this.’
“And then Gengy is coming over and asking about mindset. They are invested in it. They don’t go out of their way to do it but the fact they are over my shoulder pointing out things, it is just a great learning environment for me and the girls and I just know they are bouncing off each other which is fantastic.”
Bristol reached the semi-final stage of the Premier 15s last season only to come up just short losing 28-24 to Exeter Chiefs who have reached the semi-finals again this season and will play Saracens on Sunday in a repeat of the 2021/22 final. But Ward is confident his side has learned from their painful experience of knockout rugby.
He said: “Probably about 85 percent of the squad is exactly the same as last year, it was a huge learning experience because the girls took a half to get into the game. We probably weren’t ready last season, but if we win this weekend, and hopefully we do, then we are ready for a final. We are ready to go and win the league.
“It was a fantastic experience last time out, this time it is a shorter journey to Kingsholm on the bus and it is on a 4G surface which we train on all the time. Any advantages we can use we certainly will.”
The game kicks off at 3pm on Saturday, tickets are available here and the match will be broadcast live on BT Sport 1.
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