Head coach Nathan Smith gave full credit to his Loughborough Lightning squad, praising the effort shown in their performance at the StoneX Stadium despite being defeated 33-15 away at Saracens.
Tries from Lucy Calladine, Sadia Kabeya and captain Daisy Hibbert-Jones were not enough to stop last year’s Premiership Women’s Rugby finalists from taking all of the spoils in the first head-to-head of the year.
“I thought the girls did extremely well to stay in the fight at half-time,” Smith said.
“We took a pretty quick 12-0 deficit; in previous seasons, that would have escalated, and the game would’ve gotten away from us.
The hosts rushed into an early lead with two tries in the opening ten minutes, but Calladine’s try from a rolling maul before the break saw the deficit at just seven points.
Tries from Kabeya and Hibbert-Jones saw Lightning take the lead for the first time with 25 minutes left to play; however, Saracens registered 21 unanswered points, and Lightning left the StoneX empty-handed.
“It was almost like a game of four quarters,” Smith continued.
“Saracens won two of them, we won the others, but they scored more points in the process and ended the game on top and deserve credit for how they finished the game.
“We scored some nice tries, and our conversion rate inside the 22 was really good. Our young players, once again, have done really well.
“When you look at the likes of Lucy Calladine, who has had just a couple of PWR starts, she’s scoring pretty much every week.
“Sadia has returned from the World Cup and has continued her strong form. I thought she was world-class at times.
“I just think Saracens had that little bit more experience at key times, which got them over the line. I am disappointed that we came away with no points, which is a measure of how far we have come as a team.”
Lightning return to the road once again this Sunday with an away trip to Bristol Bears at Shaftesbury Park, the site of last season’s first victory over Bristol in over three years.
“We’re not looking too far ahead,” Smith added.
“All of our focus is on the trip to Bristol Bears. They’re going to be bang up for it, given the win we got there last season, and they’ve had a couple of results not go their way so far. It’s a challenge we are looking forward to.”