North Midlands Women were beaten 52-10 by a powerful Lancashire side in their opening match in this season’s Gill Burns County Championship at Birmingham Exiles.
An early penalty from Worcester’s Jemima Moss helped North Midlands to recover from conceding an early try but Lancashire then asserted themselves and ran in nine more tries – only one of them converted – top open up a 52-3 lead.
North Midlands rounded off the scoring when Worcester Valkyries wing Thea Thompson went over for a late try which Moss converted.
North Midlands Women are next in action on May 12 when they play Durham at Hartlepool Rovers.
The Lancashire match was attended by Gill Burns who is now Lancashire’s Senior Vice President.
Burns won 73 England caps and was then President of the Rugby Football Union for Women and the first female president of Waterloo.
She was awarded an OBE in 2005 and a Privileged Member of the RFU In 2012.