When England star, World Rugby Women’s 15s Dream Team of the Year member and soon-to-be World Cup winner Holly Aitchison left title-chasing Bristol Bears to move back to her native north west in the summer of 2025 it might have been seen by some as a career gamble.
But eight months on, the 28-year-old is loving life as a Shark and looking forward to pushing her new team on to bigger and better things.
“I can’t believe it’s been eight months. It’s gone so quickly and I still feel a bit like the new girl,” Holly said. “I’ve loved it. I feel like we’ve been building but it was so good to get a win at the weekend to give us some reward for the work we’ve been putting in.
“There have been a few games this season where we haven’t got over the line through maybe game management or little things that have gone against us. It’s hard to put your finger on why you don’t manage to win sometimes but I think there have been some quick fixes that we’ve been working on. I know that when we play those teams again, we’ll be better for the experience of having lost close games.
“When I joined I don’t think I expected to be as competitive so quickly but it’s been great. Arriving with Courtney (Keight) from Bristol was good, but because there were a lot of new players and a whole new coaching set-up it took the pressure off all of us I think.
“It was easy to settle in because I’ve known a lot of the girls for a long time.”
On arrival in Manchester Holly said she wanted “to help push northern rugby up to the top end of the game -that is the ambition in the coming years.” So eight months on, how much progress has the team made towards that goal?
“I really needed the move for myself, to be happy personally, and I ticked that box really early,” she said. “On the field, the long-term project was something that really excited me, but until you really meet people and you see what’s going on here you don’t realise how exciting it actually is.
“You see how much energy and money Michelle puts in, how ambitious she is and how much energy the coaching staff are bringing and it makes you buy in and want it so badly for everyone. It’s become incredibly important to me and I feel so invested in the whole process.
“I signed here to play attacking rugby and I knew that Tom’s philosophy was the same. Crossing the line hasn’t been a problem for us – now the focus is on learning to win.
“That’s why the win last weekend against Trailfinders was so important. We’d lost out against Bristol when we felt we should have won and the score against Loughborough didn’t really reflect how long we were in the game for, so to get over the line when it was close was brilliant.
“We pride ourselves on our northern grit and that win at Trailfinders showed what we mean when we say that. Now we want to make winning a habit.”
Bringing Formby native Holly back to the north has been a long-term ambition for the club but when the parties spoke three years ago, it was a very different proposition, not just for Holly but for other international stars.
Now Holly and fellow Red Roses Morwenna Talling and Amy Cokayne have been joined by Canadian try-scoring sensation Asia Hogan- Rochester and Ireland number 8 Brittany Hogan, who picked up player of the match in her first start last weekend.
“The type of player we can attract shows the progress we’re making,” said Holly. “I know attracting people to come and play here was a struggle but now people want to come and play here and be a part of what we’re building.
“I love the challenge and I have enjoyed being the underdog. It’s felt like we can play without any pressure because we know we have a long way to go.
“But like I said, we’re more competitive than I expected and that just makes me even more excited for what we can achieve in the future.”
