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The match-day team (depleted by injury and the unavailability of several of the players who lit up Crewe Vagrants 2 weeks ago) dismantled a spirited Aston Old Edwardians Ladies 57-7 in the home team’s first ever ladies fixture.

Despite playing with just 13 players for the majority of the second half after an injury to in-form centre, Simone Christopher and the early departure of winger Julie Pemberton, Crewe and Nantwich demonstrated their potential with some excellent running rugby built on the platform of a dominant scrum and solid defence out wide.

Aston remained competitive right up until the final whistle, showing excellent commitment in the tackle and set piece, but couldn’t live with Crewe’s aggression and commitment. Mollie Latham followed up her fine game against Eccles with a powerful display in the loose, combining well with Captain Helena Crook to turn over Aston on several occasions. The game also saw the 1st game in Crewe colours for Hailey Coutts who quickly demonstrated her rugby pedigree with some strong carries, excellent passes releasing the players outside of her and a bone-crunching tackle that seemed to reverberate around the ground.

The fast tempo set by Nikki Cole enabled the backs to start strongly, particularly Claire Waterhouse at 12 who ran hard all game. The pressure and handling enabled newcomer Vicky Irwin to open the scoring with a sharply taken try after 10 minutes. Tammy Murphy followed up quickly with a nicely taken snipe down the blindside setting the tone for the early exchanges.

Although Aston put together some good passages of play, the Crewe team were very strong in the breakdown area with Kerry-Ann Dynan putting in a big shift with some excellent rucking and mauling. The resulting turnovers, scrums and penalties prevented Aston from gaining momentum or territory. Julie Pemberton didn’t get the clean ball she needed to demonstrate her pace in attack, but snuffed out a promising run by Aston with a well-timed tackle on their winger. Crewe were extremely clinical in the first half in open play with the dynamic Ellis Greenwood touching down twice, EJ MacLeod coming close and flyhalf Phoebe Jay being held up just a yard short.

Simone Christopher left the field with 10 minutes to go before half time with a nasty ankle injury and the game lost shame soon after with errors creeping in as Aston tried to exploit the extra space. Samantha Kirk and Helena Crook tackled hard to enable Crewe to stick well at the task in hand. The second half saw some sharply taken scores, Phoebe Jay particularly impressing with an angled run to touch down to add some stardust to her strong defensive contribution throughout the game.

The last quarter brought saw some committed defensive work from both teams, the final Crewe score coming from a breakaway try from Vicky Irwin.

The game was rounded off with some sustained Aston Old Edwardian’s pressure on the back of Crewe indiscipline yielding their first score through captain Sam Clay. The reaction shown from both players and supporters demonstrating how important this game was to them.

The Crewe and Nantwich players will take yet more confidence from the match, the 57-7 score line proving their finishing prowess was no fluke against Eccles.

There is plenty of work to be done before we can be confident of success in league rugby, but this result went some way to prove that the goal we set ourselves in November when the team was set up was not far-fetched. This team has the potential to be something very special.