Let the Allianz Cup begin!

It feels like a long time since we've seen any top tier women's club rugby in England. But never fear, the Allianz Cup is back!

Starting this weekend, Premier 15s teams will go head-to-head once again giving them plenty of match time ahead of the league season, which is starting later than usual due to the World Cup, and providing opportunities to assess the depth of their squads ahead of the 2022/23 Premier 15s season.

Teams are broken down into two pools, meaning each match week we get four games, and two teams get a bye week, with the pools are seeded based on last season’s finishing positions. This season pool A features Bristol Bears Women, Loughborough Lightning, Sale Sharks Women, Saracens Women and Wasps Women, Pool B will see DMP Sharks, Exeter Chiefs Women, Gloucester-Hartpury Women, Harlequins Women and University of Worcester Warriors Women battling it out.

Each team will play two home and two away fixtures, then the top two teams in each pool will go forward to play semi-finals where the top placed team in pool A will play the second placed team in pool B and vice-versa, and then onward to the final. The rest of the teams will play out classification fixtures – the third placed teams in each pool fighting for fifth place, the fourth placed seeing who comes seventh and the bottom placed teams duelling for a ninth placed finish.

Last season saw Exeter Chiefs Women take home the cup after storming their way to the final with a run of wins, leading to a semi-final against Bristol Bears Women that ended 66-0, guaranteeing the final would take place at Sandy Park and confirming Chiefs as favourites. They then confirmed their status by steamrolling Harlequins 57-12.

This year’s tournament promises to be just as exciting and potentially even more interesting. With the World Cup on the horizon teams will be without many of their international players. What we will see instead is a mix of seasoned Premier 15s competitors, a smattering of internationals who aren’t on their way to New Zealand - whether because they play for teams like Ireland who haven’t qualified or because they didn’t make one of the 32 places on offer for their country – and a number of young players breaking into this level of rugby.

Add to that the amount of sevens internationals in the league who will likely not be available for the first couple of rounds and Friday’s team announcements will be fascinating!

What does that mean for people watching the games? They’ll be unpredictable! Some teams will focus heavily on player development, for others this is their best chance of silverware. Some squads are small enough that we won’t see much difference between league and cup line-ups. Whatever the plan, we will likely see new faces in every matchday 23.

More than anything else it’s a great chance to see some games for free or cheap so check out your nearest team for details. One club, Harlequins, are even taking the show on the road as they will play their home fixture at Cobham RFC, where entry will be free. A great example of using these games to build links in the community.

Looking ahead to this weekend and there are some juicy fixtures to start us off, in pool A Bristol host Sale, with the former likely missing a number of starting players and the latter looking to show some improvement after two seasons lurking near the bottom of the table. In what might be the game of the weekend Wasps host Lightning, with the home side recently announcing a spate of new signings, it will be intriguing to see how they line up and Loughborough, always slow to make announcements, are practically an unknown quantity.

Over in pool B DMP Sharks will be hoping a depleted Exeter Chiefs give them opportunity for a rare win at home, while Worcester play host to Harlequins in a replay of last season’s semi-final. Quins took the victory that day with a last second penalty kick from Beth Blacklock so Worcester will look to get their own back. Given their difficult pre-season with the club in the middle of a potential takeover and players not taking contact in training, it may be more of a pre-season outing for them.

The cup will continue the following week before two weeks off and will return on the weekend of October 15^th and for the two weeks afterward. The knockout games will then take place during the 2023 Women’s Six Nations.

Given the nature of the tournament it’s hard to pick out a favourite but I suspect Wasps Women will view this as an opportunity to right the ship after a lot of player turnover and a new head coach on §board after the departure of Giselle Mather to Ealing Trailfinders, so they will be a team to watch, as will the likes of Saracens and Harlequins whose squad depth has been a key reason for their appearance in so many finals.

Exeter Chiefs can’t be overlooked as the reigning champs, they’ll be without influential USA internationals Gabby Cantorna and Kate Zachary, though the likes of Poppy Leitch, Merryn Doidge and new signing Cliodhna Moloney will ensure they are still dangerous.

I am going to call out Bristol Bears as a team to keep an eye on though. They’ve recruited well and a number of their key players will still be available including Simi Pam and Hannah West who were two important cogs in their often-dominant pack and the likes of Lucy Burgess and Ella Lovibond who have become first team regulars at a young age. New signings such as Ireland legend Claire Molloy and Christiana Balogun will be available to bolster the forwards too.

Saracens and Gloucester-Hartpury sit the first weekend out, but the league champions will be itching to return to action with new recruit Grace Moore a player to keep an eye out for. The likes of May Campbell and veteran Rocky Clark will ensure they keep on the front foot in most games.

Over in Hartpury there have been a raft of new recruits, most of whom are likely to be in and around World Cup squads, but with Ellie Underwood and Kelly Smith they have a pair of backs capable of shredding oppositions.

Whatever the results in the first weekend, the Allianz Cup is a competition to keep an eye on, so get along and see if you can spot some future stars of the game taking their first steps towards the top.