By Art de Roche
Valkyries fly-half Meg Goddard has praised the attitude that clinched the historic first-ever Tyrrells Premier 15s victory.
Valkyries came out 27-19 victors in a bonus-point victory over Firwood Waterloo at Blundellsands on Saturday, a result which underpinned the hard work put in behind the scenes at the club.
“It meant so much to so many people, myself included, and building towards it over the past few weeks, we put some great structural points together and on Saturday they all fell into place,” Goddard said.
“It’s a brilliant feeling. I’ve only been with Worcester for half a season but I can really feel the sense of achievement from the win.”
The win, Valkyries first in 35 matches in the competition, came after England wing Lydia Thompson marked her comeback from a long injury lay-off with an early try.
“We had the belief and managed to get on the front foot to score an early try and kept our feet on the pedal,” Goddard said.
“The pressure that we put on ourselves was good and allowed us to control the game.
“We dropped off a little bit and they came back into the game but we came together, said that we needed to dominate and go forward, which is what we did.”
Key to Valkyries’ quick start was Goddard’s kicking which has improved under the tutelage of Richard Whincup, Valkyries’ new kicking coach, who has followed her to Sixways from Gloucester-Hartpury.
“I’ve worked with Richard for many years and it’s great to implement kicking within the women’s game where it’s massively underrated,” Goddard said.
“We’ve been working on that in training and wingers telling you where they want the ball makes it easier.
“The pressure’s not on you as a fly-half so you just see the space and guide the ball into it.”
Following the Waterloo victory, Valkyries head into the final game of the season against Darlington Mowden Park Sharks at Sixways on Saturday (kick-off 3.00pm) wanting to replicate that winning feeling.
“We’ve got a big week of training. You can’t just win one game, we’ve got to push it forward and try to win again this weekend,” Goddard said.
“Hopefully that’ll allow us to build into next season which will be very exciting.”