Gloucester-Hartpury centre, Hannah Jones, is looking forward to coming up against her Welsh international teammates on Saturday, when her side travel to Shaftesbury Park to take on Bristol Bears in the Allianz Premier 15s.

“There’s a lot of Welsh girls in the Bristol side and it’s always nice to come up against them. It’s always nice to get one over on them, especially on derby day!

“They’re quite similar to us but I’m sure we can get the job done.”

Last weekend, Gloucester-Hartpury defeated Sale Sharks Women 41-7 at Kingsholm, making it nine wins on the bounce as they reached the halfway point of the league season.

Jones is proud of the run they’re on, but says they must keep their concentration to avoid slipping up.

“It was a brilliant win. To go nine from nine is a brilliant achievement for us. Now we are focusing on getting our analysis and recovery in for Bristol on Saturday.

“It’s a good place to be, on top of the table, but everybody’s going to be gunning for us now so we’re just focussing on going game by game and hopefully we’ll have Bristol under our belts this week.”

Jones was pleased to get the win over Sale on the weekend, despite admitting it wasn’t their best game of the season.

“It was a stop-start type of game, but we’re just glad we got the win.”

It was Gloucester-Hartpury’s first match at Kingsholm this season, and Jones said she loves playing at ‘Holm.

“I loved the crowd and playing on that field as well. It’s such a nice pitch to play on, it makes for a fast, high-tempo game so it suits us perfectly.”

Gloucester Rugby Community department hosted a coaching clinic before the game, with a number of local girls turning out to be coached by the non-playing players and to watch the league leaders.

Jones enjoyed interacting with the girls.

“It was lovely to meet all the little girls on the side-line and listen to their stories about how they started and how we’re inspiring them to keep playing so it was really nice.”

Gloucester-Hartpury return to Kingsholm on Saturday 25 February when they host the Premier 15s Champions, Saracens, and again in April when they host Harlequins.

Jones is looking forward to being back at Kingsholm but says her thoughts at this moment are fully on Bristol on Saturday.

“We love the facility here and playing on the pitch, so those games are really something to look forward to.

“But we’re just taking this week by week, game by game, and are fully concentrating on Bristol this weekend.”

Tickets for Gloucester-Hartpury’s next Kingsholm fixture against Saracens are available here. You can also catch the game live here.

Jones looks forward to facing Wales teammates in derby

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