Hard to Beat

Prologue

Intro music – heavy bass, cheeky whistle sting

Tommy Harris, ex-player turned pundit: Morning all and welcome back to Blood, Sweat and Banter – the only rugby podcast brave enough to ask if the much-talked about Westcliffe RFC women are actually any good, or if they should pack up and leave it to the lads.

Vix Hargrove, journalist and presenter: Bit harsh, Tommy.

Tommy: Well, for listeners who don't follow the girls' game – when we say Westcliffe we mean that Westcliffe.

The same team that we all know and love from the men's game, powerhouses of the Premiership, even into European rugby.

They had a blinder of a season last year, capped off with James 'Brick' Whitehouse lifting the silverware.

Homegrown number eight, England legend, built like a wardrobe – he's got the whole town buzzing.

Vix: Oh, here we go – Tommy's one man Brick fan club. We're talking women's rugby today, Tommy, and not the men's for once.

Tommy: Just saying, that's the standard they'll need to reach if they want the headlines too.

Vix: The Westcliffe women did make some headlines this year, though perhaps not in the way they would have hoped. That last season was, uh… character building, wasn't it?

Tommy: You could call it that. You could call it the kind of season that ends many coaches' careers. Bottom half of the table, too many injuries, and one captain pulling her hair out.

Vix: Speaking of which, Fleur Moreau – Westcliffe captain and queen of the diplomatic non-answer – joins us today.

Fleur (smooth, accented): Bonjour! I think I am already regretting this.

Vix: Alongside her, we've got Westcliffe's impressive second row, Georgia Hotchkiss. Fresh off the back of the England summer tour to the Pacific Islands, where she picked up a concussion in the third match. Georgia, how are you feeling now?

Georgia (bright, quick): Hi! All fixed, ready to go. Thanks for having me.

Vix: But before that unfortunate knock, she's been dominating the stats sheets this season.

I've got the numbers here, in fact. She played a whopping total of 1543 minutes of club rugby last season, made 285 carries, and 14 line breaks.

She's also put in a real defensive shift with an incredible 422 tackles.

That's more than twenty a game, every game, for the whole of the season.

Tommy: Ouch, those are some monster numbers.

Vix: On top of that, she's also Westcliffe's leading point scorer, getting over the line for thirteen tries, mostly on the back of their fearsome rolling mauls.

Tommy: Having a second row as your leading point scorer perhaps says more about the performance of Westcliffe's back line than it does about Georgia herself… Right, let's get to it. Fleur – last season was rough. The men were lifting the silverware, the women weren't. What went wrong?

Fleur: Many things. Injuries, as you say. Bad luck, also. We had some… difficult moments. But it does not mean the story is finished.

Vix: That's very stateswoman of you, Fleur. But what fans want to know is: can Westcliffe get back to their winning ways this year?

Fleur (laughing): They will see soon enough.

Georgia: We can. We will. Look, last season hurt, no doubt about it. But the work the squad's been putting in, even in the off season, is going to make all the difference. We're fitter, faster, hungrier.

Fleur: Exactly. I have no doubt, Westcliffe will be back at the top soon enough.

Vix: Love the confidence girls.

Tommy: Fighting words. Bit cocky though, isn't it? Promising a "Brick Whitehouse season" before a ball's even been kicked.

Georgia: Not cocky, Tommy – that's always been more your style than ours. We're just focused. Determined. We can't settle for "better luck next year" again.

Vix: Ooh, I like this. Fleur's cagey, contained, Georgia's fired up. Feels like a power shift brewing at Westcliffe?

Fleur (coolly): Feels like a team preparing to win, Vix. That is all.

Tommy: We'll hold you to that.

Vix: These ladies are firecrackers all round, it seems! Alright, listeners, you heard it here first: Westcliffe are either about to shock the league, or give us an entire podcast season's worth of content… either way, prepare to be entertained!

Outro sting to commercial break – cheeky whistle and crowd cheer