Tries for two players making their debuts for Stafford Women

Stafford women started their season off with a tough pre-season fixture against a very strong Crewe & Nantwich team

Numbers were limited to 16 because of the Bank Holiday weekend but the team went above and beyond and they delivered one of their best ever performances

The game was split into 4 quarters and after the first 20 minutes the score was still 0-0 with Stafford dominating areas of the game and starting to find their feet with the new system of play

In the 2nd quarter Crewe made a few changes and brought on some of their stronger players and managed to get two quick scores. The response from Stafford was excellent and after some great team play Verity Bellingham finished off a great move going over in the corner. From the restart Stafford continued to pile on the pressure and won a penalty 10 meters from Crewe’s line. Hattie Mitchell making her Stafford debut, bulldozed over from the tap penalty and levelled the scores 10-10

The second half saw a similar pattern as the first with Crewe’s senior players spending more and more time on the pitch and their experience paid off and saw Crewe run in 2 more tries

This seemed to ignite a new level of energy in the Stafford team and after a great passage of play and pressure Stafford were once again camped out on Crewe’s try line

After some excellent play from the forwards to build a platform Bobbi Sharrett released the very impressive Tianna Wilkinson who drew two defenders and delivered the ball to Gemma Simkin also making her debut, who hit a great line and went over for a well deserved try

The team did amazing and walked off with their heads held high

Final score 37-15 to Crewe

Back of the match Gemma Simkin
Forward of the match Hattie Mitchell
Mergoat award Katey Brookes