Ladies from West Norfolk Rugby Club suffered a narrow 24-20 defeat in their league opener against Mansfield Women at Gatehouse Lane on Sunday.
After a scrappy start, the visitors registered an unconverted try to put their first points on the scoreboard.
Within a matter of minutes, both Mansfield and West Norfolk had players sent to the sin bin with yellow cards.
Once they had their full quota of players back on the field, Mansfield increased their lead with a converted try.
A powerful run from Meghan Burroughs from deep in the Mansfield half saw the hosts inch towards the try line with a dynamic passing phase from the backs.
After another Mansfield infringement, West took the free kick, culminating in West’s Zoe Sharp scoring the home side’s first try.
The visitors increased their lead early in the second half with an unconverted score before Sarah Hodge side-stepped her way over for a try which was converted by Jade Nicholson.
An infringement from the visitors led to West Norfolk being awarded a kickable penalty that Nicholson put perfectly between the posts.
The visitors weren’t able to gain possession at the restart and after a brief period of play, yet another penalty went against them, putting the home team close to their line.
A subsequent break from Sharp took her across to score once again, with the conversion going wide.
Heading into the final quarter of the game, both teams conceded more penalties against them and, during a solid scrum at West’s 22-metre line, Mansfield went over for an unconverted score to make the score 20-24.
Both teams were blowing hard, but the players relentlessly put tackle after tackle in, contesting to the very end.
West Norfolk weren’t able to regain meaningful possession, with a knock-on putting the ball into Mansfield’s hands in the final minute, which they kicked to touch to win the game.
West Forward of the Match: Ruth Denham.
West Back of the Match: Abby Puddlefoot.
