North Wales Crusaders’ head coach Beci Davies was delighted after her side won their first ever game, beating Heysham Atoms 28-18.

The team have been training for ten weeks and this was the first in a series of friendlies for the new female set-up in Colwyn Bay in 2023.

Eloise Kirby scored two tries for the Cru. Also running over were Codie Slack, Bea O’Neill and Becky Jarvis-Evans with four conversions from Sioned Phillips. Player of match was Whitney Tucker.

Heysham, playing just the ninth game in their existence, replied with tries from Jadine McVernon, Rachel O’Connor and Lauren Helme with three goals from Katy Gribbons.

Davies, who normally plays for Salford Red Devils and Wales, but is spending 2023 on the sidelines due to injury, said: “I’m delighted. I was quietly confident we could win, as I’ve seen our team develop over the weeks and I know how good they are. I knew it was going to be competitive game as they’re fairly new too as well, but I knew that if we could gel, we’d put on a show.

“It’s been 10 weeks since we all got together, during that time, it’s been about bonding, skills, development and how we play. Last week’s training though, we spent two hours on game-play as for all bar one of the players, it was their first game of rugby league. It was time well spent.

“That’s our first game of six planned. We next play against Oldham on 25th June again at home and hopefully that’ll be a double header with the men’s. Oldham are a new side as well. They first played in the 9s and played a full game against Heysham earlier this month and won. I’ve seen them play and if we look sharp, I think we can give them a good go.”