Crewe and Nantwich RUFC Ladies brushed aside a spirited but outgunned Broughton Park Ladies side in their first home game of the season at Crewe Vagrants.
After starting brightly with two disallowed tries through Mollie Latham and India Perris-Redding, Broughton Park looked more threatening with good recycling work and a solid set-piece.
Crewe may have been more physical in the tackle, particularly through Katie Heirene and Mollie Latham, but uncharacteristic errors limited the home side’s progress.
Recently promoted Broughton Park showed good commitment in the physical contest, in particular their fullback, who made several try saving tackles.
The deadlock was broken by Perris-Redding who raced under the posts from outside the 22 to open the scoring, converted by Jordan Morris.
Crewe quickly built an imposing lead through tries from Millie Jones from long-range, Laura Hollinshead and Shepperson despite struggling to find any real fluency.
The hosts made several personnel changes, with fresh legs further stretching the Broughton Park resources.
Perris-Redding scored the pick of the second-half scores after an outrageous offload from Latham, then Chelsea Hobbs scored her first Crewe and Nantwich try from close range after some sustained pressure.
Shepperson added her second soon afterwards before Heirene capped an outstanding performance with a try with ten minutes to go to win the bonus point.
To Broughton Park’s credit, they kept on working to the final whistle, scoring a well-worked try through their scrum half to come away with some positives to take into their next game.
Captain Perris-Redding said: “At this stage of the season getting maximum points from a game is vital, as that is often how the league is decided.
“We were someway off our best at times but still dominated the game, so that shows where we set our standards. There is work to do, but I’m really excited about where we are headed as a squad.”
Coach Vicky Irwin added: “It was far from perfect, but scoring nine tries, particularly from so many different scorers is taking us in the right direction.
“Several players stepped up in unfamiliar positions and we are bedding in new players into the squad so overall the coaching team are pretty happy with the game and where we are.”
The Ladies travel to Preston Grasshoppers on Sunday October 7.
Meanwhile, Crewe & Nantwich RUFC 3rds secured a fine 22-17 win away at rivals Newcastle to remain top of their league.
Crewe began well with a kick to the corner from a penalty resulting in a good catch and drive from no.8 Manaton who powered over to make it 5-0.
Hosts Newcastle were a tough side who hit back quickly with their score to tie the game at 5-5.
Soon after Crewe secured good ball from a scrum which gave fly half Creighton time and space.
He used it to great effect by jinking past defenders and over for a try out wide to make it 10-5.
Crewe were on top now and scored a further try through centre Colbourne to move 15-5 clear.
However, penalties were to cost the hosts dear and a converted try by Newcastle brought the half time score to 15-12.
Crewe started the second half well but failed to add to the score until a good break by Creighton found club stalwart back row Dave Germain.
He sprinted over for a try, which was well converted by scrum half Chris Maloney.
There should have been no way back for Newcastle, but a series of penalties were again to cost Crewe and a converted try brought the final score to 22-17.
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