19th March 2023 was the first time Charlotte Fray ran out onto the pitch at Mattioli Woods Welford Road wearing the famous green, white and red. However, it was not her first time on the pitch, having started in the second-row for Loughborough Town in the home fixture back in November. Since then, the lock has appeared four times for the Tigers and scored three tries, including two in last weekend’s fixture against Bishop Auckland. 

We caught up with her after the match for her thoughts on running out to a roaring crowd and keeping another clean sheet.

Firstly, those hard lines you were running looked absolutely tremendous, do you enjoy being that ball carrying option, smashing people?

It’s a good option to have and it’s always good fun! So much of that is down to quick, clean ball from the 9s and 10s and the whole team works their socks off to allow us to play front-foot football and keep momentum up. That crash ball option is a key part of my game.

Today is the last game at Mattioli Woods Welford Road for this season, how special does it feel to play here and dot down those tries in front of roaring fans?

It’s absolutely class, an unbelievable feeling. It’s my first game here for Tigers and I have to say, the fans are awesome, it’s been a really cool experience. I played here for Loughborough Town but to do so for Tigers has been special.

So your first game at Mattioli Woods Welford Road in Tigers colours, how does it feel running out of that tunnel with the flags waving and music pumping?

It feels very surreal, a real dream come true. It’s a massive opportunity to be able to play here and it feels class, everyone behind the scenes who make this happen it’s fantastic and it’s pulling women’s rugby in the right direction.

Finally, 13 tries scored by the team today, 79 points overall, but one of the areas that got the biggest cheer of the day was the defence effort in the last 10 minutes how does it feel to keep another clean sheet?

First and foremost, have to give props to Stevie H (Steve Hanna) who has been working all season on our defence. We really put everything into that spell and showed we have that resilience, we have that staunch will to refuse to let anyone over our try line and to keep that score at 0.