Premiership Women’s Rugby: Bristol face ‘huge’ visit from Exeter on Sunday

“It’s great – they want to ride on the coat-tails, no problem,” said Ward, jokingly calling the posts “propaganda” by Chiefs counterpart Susie Appleby and drawing parallels between himself and fictional coach Kent, who featured in the Ted Lasso series about an American hired to coach an English football team.

“We all know what Susie’s like. It’s going to be a huge game. They’re trying to poke the bear, pun intended.

“They want to get at Roy Kent. I’m just batting it off. We’re here to do a job this weekend. We can’t wait to play at Ashton Gate and if there’s a bit of spice between me and Susie before the game, even better.”

The Bears won 19-14 at reigning champions Gloucester-Hartpury on Saturday but both their defeats this season have come at home – and Ward is wary of Maher’s much-discussed arrival distracting his players.

“We probably saw it last week with Harlequins men and the Joe Marler situation,” Ward said of Quins’ 48-24 thrashing at home to Bristol in the former England international’s final game on Friday.

“Everyone wanted to give Joe a massive send-off after an amazing career and they end up not showing up on the night.

“We can’t fall into that trap. The girls are focused, they want to win. We want to put on a home show for our fans – which we haven’t really done this season – by hook or by crook.

“It’s a huge opportunity to do that on Saturday against an angry Exeter Chiefs team.”