Aston, shorn of some of their stand-out players from last season, were well beaten in their opening league game of the campaign, by a strong Birmingham Moseley side. Despite starting strongly and applying early pressure, Aston turned over possession just short of the try-line and the home side scored an excellent length of the field try through good inter-passing and support play after 7 minutes.

Good handling again from Moseley led to their second try on 15 minutes, before Grace Harris kicked a neat penalty to reduce the deficit to 10-3 after 27 minutes. Aston hard their fair share of possession, with the scrum looking solid, but were unable to gather any real momentum and pressure.

Moseley, however, looked dangerous every time they moved the ball, with their support play particularly noticeable. The home scrum-half took advantage of this to burst through a gap on 33 minutes to score the 3rd try, which was duly converted to give a half-time lead of 17-3.

The early stages of the 2nd period mirrored the first half, with Aston unable to break though and sustain possession, despite a number of forceful runs from No 8 Jenny Channer. Grace Harris, at scrum-half, mixed the game up with some intelligent kicks behind the Moseley defence, but these were dealt with well by Moseley, which continued with their impressive running and off-loading game. The home scrum half nipped in for her 2nd try in similar fashion to her first after 55 minutes.

Aston held firm for much of the remainder of the game before conceding 2 more late tries to extend their winning margin to 36-3.

Beth Hodgetts was awarded forward of the game for Aston, whilst Grace Harris was the back of the match.

Aston will hope that the return of players from BCU in the coming weeks will bolster the squad.

The highlight of the game was the appearance of mother and daughter Sam Hart and Lucy Thewlis, who was making her senior debut – the first time that Aston have been represented in this way in a Women’s game.

Aston face Handsworth Women (away) next Sunday (22nd September) - kick-off 2pm.