■ By BEN JAYCOCK

SARAH Beckett admits Gloucester-Hartpury have made an underwhelming start to their title defence but believes that’s partly due to competition across the PWR being at an alltime high.
The versatile forward, who can operate at either second or back row, returned to action last month from an upper body injury that ruled her out of the opening six rounds.
Back-to-back reigning champions Gloucester-Hartpury suffered more losses in the opening seven rounds than they had across the previous two campaigns. The 25-year-old feels their competitors have upped th...