Waterman: Best teams in the Women's Premiership have been rewarded with final
Sunday 17 January 2016 18:15, UK
England's Danielle Waterman believes the two best sides in the Women's Premiership are contesting Sunday's final on Sky Sports.
Saracens Women made their way to the Twickenham Stoop final after beating Litchfield Ladies 19-12 at Allianz Park, while Richmond Women won their semi-final against Worcester Ladies 35-0.
The two sides have been dominant all season, and Waterman says both have been rewarded for their performances with a chance to lift the trophy.
"Definitely this season those two teams have been performing the most consistently," said Waterman. "It will be interesting to see the tactics that each team brings, because in a lot of ways they cancel each other out."
It's a match-up that the England international believes will be decided at the breakdown.
"The Saracens back row has a huge amount of experience. In particular Poppy Cleall, who is part of the England Academy setup. She's a big ball-carrier and I think Saracens will be utilising her.
"Richmond have been renowned for their pack in previous years, but they are missing a few key players, so it will be interesting to see how the pack steps up.
"Richmond have Amy Turner, who is a seasoned international, playing in the centres, and she'll be calling a lot of the shots.
There were 20 players absent from proceedings this season as they joined the England Women's 7s team to prepare for the Rio Olympics later this year and though Waterman believes this led to a more even field in the Premiership, some sides struggled with the loss in personnel.
She said: "Naturally there is always the top four to five teams in the Premiership, and then there are the teams that they get the relatively big scores against.
"This season, although some of the scores have still been big, the games have been tough. I think the Premiership has been a lot more [evenly] contested than previous seasons.
"Teams are still trying to figure out where they are without the 20 contracted players.
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"If you take 20 players out of a club programme, it's going to decimate teams. Richmond, to be fair to them, have lost seven players, which is a considerable amount of starting players. So they've had to find their feet without those players this season."
Waterman is pleased with the growth in the game that has been brought about by the keenly-contested season.
"There's constantly an ongoing interest in the game," she said.
"It's challenging because of the media exposure we get. The fact that this game is on Sky Sports is fantastic because of awareness more than anything.
"Because when people watch it they enjoy it, they see it for a different type of game and different style of game to the men's."
Watch Richmond Women v Saracens Women live on Sky Sports 5 from 5.25pm
