Penrith Panthers ladies made an outstanding league debut when they beat Hartlepool Rovers 50-0.
This is only the Panthers second season and they made the brave decision in May to join the NC2 league instead of the NC3 development league.
The Hartlepool team have been going a bit longer than the Panthers and dropped to NC2 after being relegated last season from NC1.
The game started off very even as both sides tried to find their feet and put a string of phases together.
It took 20 minutes before the deadlock was broken when the Panthers were awarded a penalty for offside just inside their half.
Linzi Jenkins took a tap and passed to Polly Bowman who broke through the initial defence before using her pace to go round the full-back to score the opening try with Caitlin Wood adding the conversion.
Penrith’s next score came after a period of possession, when the ball was moved wide from a scrum to the wing.
From Jackie Thompson’s wing the ball was moved wide to Amber Sullivan on the other wing.
When Sullivan was tackled, from the breakdown the ball was given to fly half Ghana Walker who fed the ball back inside to Bowman who powered through two tackles to score. Wood added the conversion.
Hartlepool Rovers only travelled with 15 players and with them losing a couple to injury the second half re-started at 12 a-side.
The next score for the Panthers came from a penalty awarded to Hartlepool, who decided to kick for touch but it just fell short.
Meg Phillips-Craig took the ball clean in the air and burst through the defence on halfway to head for the line.
She was caught five metres short but from the tackle the ball was offloaded to Walker who went over to score.
Bowman was back on the score sheet again soon after.
She picked-up ball from the back of a ruck on her own 10 metre line and spotting that there were no defenders on the blindside took full advantage to score under the posts.
The next score from the Panthers was after some really nice rugby. The forwards made a couple of carries drawing in the defenders, and from this the ball was moved to Walker and then to Phillips-Craig in the centres.
She stepped inside, breaking through two defenders and drew a third before feeding Wood who had a clear run in to score.
Penrith continued their dominance and Chloe Capstick, on her debut, made a break off her wing and offloaded to Bowman who once again scored under the posts for Walker to convert.
Julia Addison was next to score after the forwards continued to carry hard and when the ball got moved she broke through the defence to score under the posts. Wood added the conversion.
The final try of the game came from a midfield scrum. The ball was passed straight to Walker at fly half who sent it down the line to Addison and then to Wood in space who went over to score, adding her own conversion.
Forward of the match was captain Caron Davidson, as her work-rate was outstanding carrying ball after ball. In defence she led the team forward putting the Hartlepool attack under pressure.
Back of the match was scrum half Linzi Jenkins. In defence she never missed her tackles and in attack she was calm and composed picking the right pass every time.
