Head Coach Nathan Smith praised the guts of his Loughborough Lightning side’s defensive effort in their 26-5 defeat to Exeter Chiefs.
In horrendous conditions at Sandy Park, the hosts built a 19-5 lead after 28 minutes, and despite having the lion’s share of possession and territory, did not add a fourth try until second-half stoppage time.
“Conditions put paid to what could’ve been a really good game,” said Smith. “Exeter took their opportunities in the first 20 minutes when the conditions were a little kinder.
“It’s just disappointing, we haven’t performed how we wanted to. We wanted to impose ourselves on Exeter, but that is the beauty of rugby, you cannot always control the conditions, you cannot always control what you are up against.
“To be able to do that against any team in the PWR, but someone as powerful Exeter, we will take positives from that.”
The Built Differently Player of the Match award went to Lilli Ives Campion who took the fight to Exeter Chiefs in an attritional encounter.
“Credit goes to Lilli and the forwards, we really went after their lineout and got a lot of rewards on the pitch,” added Smith. “It’s pleasing to see something that has been worked on in training pay off and I’m pleased that was acknowledged with the player-of the-match accolade.”
Lightning have started 2026 with back-to-back defeats to Gloucester-Hartpury and Exeter Chiefs, but now enter a period where they have three home games in four weeks starting with the visit of Bristol Bears to cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens on Sunday 22 February – tickets are available by clicking HERE.
“The two games we’ve started the year with are amongst the toughest in the PWR,” said Smith. “We had time off to which doesn’t always help continuity. At this stage of the season you just want to play week after week and keep the ball rolling in terms of momentum.
“It has been tough, we will come out of it a better team and really attack those next few weeks at home and we’re looking forward to getting back out there at cinch Stadium against Bristol.”