North Midlands Women opened their Gill Burns County Championship campaign with a 40-15 defeat at the hands of Staffordshire at Five Ways OE.
There were six yellow cards – three to each side – and Staffordshire’s experience proved decisive.
Staffordshire effectively had victory sown up by half-time when they eased into a 28-0 lead although North Midlands plugged away gamely and won the second half, but not the match.
Two early converted tries from Staffordshire gave them the advantage and put North Midlands under pressure.
Two more converted tries in the final five minutes of the first half left North Midlands facing a long uphill struggle. Staffordshire scoredfirst from a chip and chase and then they capitalised on a defensive error.
It would have been easy for North Midlands to have surrendered at that point. Instead they took the game to Staffordshire in the second half with captain Steph Clarke, playing on her home ground, darting through for an unconverted try.
North Midlands maintained the pressure and Clarke went over for her second try from a driving maul and the match became a contest again when Aston OE wing Jada Bailey made the break and put Moseley’s Eve Faulder for the third try which trimmed Staffordshire’s lead to 13 points.
But a yellow card for North Midland’s prop Kerry Anne Meadowcroft in the last 10 minutes proved costly.
Staffordshire used their player advantage to halt the North Midlands’ come back. Their slick handling and off-loading produced an unconverted try to virtually seal the game at 33 – 15.
The win was confirmed within the last few minutes when Staffordshire scored their sixth try.