DARLINGTON Mowden Park Durham Sharks co-captain Lisa Cockburn sounds a bit flabbergasted when you remind her the last time her squad played in front of a home crowd was January 2020.

That’s about to change. Sharks’ home opener against Saracens, last season’s regular-season table-toppers, will kick off next weekend, with the team first meeting Gloucester-Hartpury away tomorrow afternoon.

Cockburn and her side were more than happy to put last season to bed, finishing with an abysmal 1-17 record. This year, she’s hoping pre-season bonding, hard work and a newly-minted boss will go a long way in the table-climbing effort.

She said: “We’re the underdogs at the moment, and there’s been a lot of changes for us over the last year. I think now things are settling down and falling into place. We’re hoping to just improve from what we did last year.

“Having fans is going to be really nice! We’ve got a 25,000 seater stadium, it’s a great atmosphere to be in, and have the supporters back. We’ve got some proper diehard fans that haven’t been able to come and watch us, and it will be really nice to hear them cheering us on and to have a buzz around the game. It can get a bit eerie when there’s no one around.”

The Premier 15s will once again be played over 18 rounds, culminating with play-offs and a title final in early June.

With no promotion or relegation, there are no changes to the ten teams within England’s top-flight of women’s domestic rugby.

You can forgive Mark Luffman for having a few blank pages in his pre-season playbook—after all, news about his appointment as the new Sharks performance manager only broke on Tuesday.

Luffman, who coached Sharks’ men’s 1st XV for two seasons between 2017 and 2020, left to join the England Women’s coaching set-up but is looking forward to re-joining the Darlington club ahead of the new Premier 15s season.

“It’s been busy, but busy’s good,” said the new boss with a chuckle. “The girls are fantastic, they’ve been really welcoming. We’re really excited for the season to start."

* The Allianz Premier 15s is the top-flight women’s domestic rugby union competition in England. For the latest news from the Allianz Premier 15s, you can follow @Premier15s on Twitter and Instagram. You can also watch live action on Premier15s.com throughout the 2021/22 campaign.