91Èȱ¬

Exeter coach Steve Salvin has praised his players after their 21-15 win at champions Gloucester-Hartpury in Premiership Women's Rugby.

It was the first meeting of the two sides since the Cherry and Whites beat Exeter 50-19 in last season's play-off semi-finals.

The win means Exeter are second in the table, two points off leaders Saracens, having won all three of their matches.

"We don't win here very often so we have to celebrate the win because the girls thoroughly deserved it," Salvin told 91Èȱ¬ Radio Devon.

"They trained extremely well in the week and they set themselves up today.

"Every team in the league is going to change quite significantly over the next two, three, four weeks and this was probably the last week before that happened.

"This group of players have been together for quite a long time and done a huge amount of good work, so I'm just really pleased they got a win here because they thoroughly deserve it."

Exeter will welcome back their contingent of England players after the WXV tournament, with Gloucester also having a weakened squad as many of their internationals were rested after playing for their countries.

Salvin says he is not worried about integrating his international players back into the squad, but appreciates it may take some time for things to gel perfectly.

"It's a reality for everyone," he said.

"We brought three or four players off the bench who came back in from WXV this week.

"They've literally trained once, so it's not overly surprising there was a little bit of a lack of clarity over exactly what they're meant to be doing in certain scenarios.

"But we've got time now and any of those issues we've got, we can start building that cohesion moving forward."