West Norfolk Ladies crush Crusaders

Five-try Jess Milnes helped West Norfolk return to the league summit with a big win against Crusaders at Gatehouse Lane.With Colchester Iceni playing on Saturday, West Norfolk Ladies went into Sunday’s game second in the league – a position that they were keen to quickly reverse.Crusaders had struggled to field a full team, but rather than taking the walkover West decided to loan players and shorten the playing time to keep the game on.Whilst West knew that they had the superior experience and skills they weren’t taking anything for granted, they were out of the blocks quickly and recycling the ball at pace, resulting in five tries in the first 15 minutes.However, their control at the breakdown led to multiple penalties and the need to slow the pace and focus on the basics.Ruth Denham controlled the forwards in the central channel well, with strong pods and individual runs, releasing her fellow forwards Cora Hunter, Freya Gracie, Poppy Wakefield and Eleanor Navrady to run in more tries.Fly-half Meg Burrough worked well with scrum-half Tiff Turner in getting some quick ball to the backs and sending it down the line to speedster Milnes who secured her hat-trick within 40 minutes. The home side led 54-0 at half-time. Whilst the second half didn’t improve in terms of scores for Crusaders their scrum became more competitive, and their defence shut down West much more in the open play.However, West were always going to run in more tries, with Burroughs deciding to get in on the action and Milnes running in two more to finish on five for the day.The forwards were relentless, Navrady, after three months out with an ankle injury, announced her return with a hat-trick, Hunter showing incredible speed and agility for a prop-forward scored four and Gracie added another to her tally. Jade Nicholson, West Norfolk and the league’s top points scorer added another 28 to her points total of the season, now sat at 131.The game was called after 60 minutes at 108-0 to West, and everyone enjoyed the post-match awards together. Forward of the Match: Ruth Denham, sponsored by Adrian Flux Insurance.Back of the Match: Jess Milnes, sponsored by Maze Media.The next game is at home to rivals Colchester on February 23 (3pm).