The pitch had very little grass on it and was extremely heavy under foot, which meant it was hard to play with any pace at all, for either team. Stafford started strongly and quickly figured out that it was best to keep things tight with many good strong carries. The pressure told in the end and Izzy crashed over for a try after a few phases in and around Crewe's try line. Katy converted for the extra's 7-0.
Crewe settled into the game after this and came back quite hard at Stafford and there was a lot of solid very strong defensive tackles across all the team. This was clearly not going to be a high scoring game due to the heavy conditions under foot. The referee had to keep replacing the ball so it could be seen due the mud covering the ball completely!
Stafford kept going and Crewe at this stage were not able to threaten much really due to relentless tackling from Stafford. In attack Stafford ground on and Freya scored a lovely team try out wide after the team had worn Crewe down through many phases and then passed down the line and Crewe had run out of defenders - a true team try.

Crewe are a spirited committed team and kept coming back at Stafford and gave us a taste of our own medicine scoring a good team try on the stroke of half time. Score 12-5 to Stafford.

Crewe freshened up their team with 3 or 4 new players, sadly not an option for Stafford as they only had 16 players for the game. This had an impact on the heavy legs and Crewe upped their tempo and Crewe scored again - 12-10 - the game was on!

Stafford stuck to their task, kept their shape, had good line speed in defence and began to win the defensive battle. Felt some energy flooded back to the team and some good carries. Esmee T made a great break (plus a cheeky dummy) and off loaded to Ava for her to score a great try for the team. 17-10.

Stafford saw out the rest of the game with good defensive work and kept Crewe in their half. All in all a good victory, the conditions were a great leveller and made it a tight game, but a good victory for Stafford in the end.
Forward: Ava
Back: Katy
Dame: Chloe