Dejected at the outcome but bursting with pride at the performance, head coach Nathan Smith felt a mix of contrasting emotions following his side’s 38-43 defeat to Gloucester-Hartpury.
The last time the three-time reigning Premiership Women’s Rugby title-winners lost, the Red Roses were not World Champions and Lightning’s No.8 Haineala Lutui was still ten months away from making her PWR debut.
But few can claim, over that 23‑game winning run, to have pushed the dominant force in English women’s club rugby as hard as Lightning did in Sunday’s cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens encounter.
Smith’s side led on the scoreboard for half of the contest, including with three minutes to go, but ultimately fell agonisingly short of a glorious victory as the visitors held their nerve to land a match-winning score.
“It was a great game of rugby,” said Smith, “We saw two teams playing rugby in the right manner, in the right conditions to allow that. I am extremely proud of the girls for the performance we’ve put out there, but slightly disappointed that we’ve not managed to get the five points.
“But you’ve got to remember, Gloucester are probably at the peak of their powers currently, and we’ve hopefully not scratched the surface yet.”
Sadia Kabeya, Lilli Ives Campion, Bo Westcombe-Evans, Fancy Bermudez and Carmela Morrall tries, plus three successful Helena Rowland conversions, saw Lightning build a strong second-half lead.
But Gloucester-Hartpury came off the ropes with four successive tries to seemingly end any fears of their winning run coming to an end.
With Alev Kelter packing down at No.8 and the side down to 14 players due to captain Daisy Hibbert-Jones suffering a knock once the bench had been emptied, Lightning launched one final attacking foray with their stand-in figure at the back of the scrum playing a key role.
The all-action American, the day after turning 35 years of age, found the energy to burst her way upfield and then, after a fine kick-to-compete saw the ball retained, Kelter then poached her way over from close range and Rowland’s conversion nudged her team ahead.
Lightning had three minutes to hold out. Gloucester-Hartpury needed only one of them to break home hearts as Tatyana Heard landed a killer blow out wide.
“To come back into it and be leading with three, four minutes to play is an absolute credit to the girls,” added Smith. “We probably felt like a little bit dead and buried with six or seven minutes left, but we got an opportunity again from our No.8 Alev Kelter! It’s just obviously disappointing we didn’t get over the line.”
The two points gained keep Lightning’s hopes of competing in the end-of-season play-offs alive. They are currently five points adrift of fourth-placed Sale Sharks with three games remaining. The first of those is against Trailfinders Women on Sunday 29 March, before a two-month break begins for the international period.
Lightning will see their strong contingent of senior and U21 Red Roses head away on camps before reconvening at the back end of the week for the trip to West London.
“We’ve got a bit of a disjointed week, with the number of players being away on international camps for the start the week,” explained Smith.
“However, we're really looking forward to the challenge of going to Ealing and the opportunity for us to impose our game on someone else.”