HISTORY was made at Spring Lane last Sunday afternoon when the Malvern Angels won their inaugural national league fixture.

The Angels, the town's first senior women's rugby squad, came away with an impressive 32-10 victory against Newark Ladies.

Following their training over the summer and the development fixtures at the beginning of the season, the Angels took their first league game in their stride, showing improvement in all aspects of play.

In a game dominated by forward play, Malvern were able to show that the tutorage of head coach Mark Edwards has paid off with improved line-out options, impressive domination in the set-scrum and greater control in the ruck and maul. The Angels showed faster hands and a greater ability to read the play to thwart all attempts by Newark to upset their game plan.

Malvern's full-back Laney Madsen opened the points tally with a try in the corner; this was closely followed by a team try touched down by centre-back Lou Saum after a well-executed driving maul by the Malvern pack.

Then, from a stolen scrum and a roll-off drive, No 8 Jo Bassett touch down to put Malvern three tries in front. Nevertheless, minutes later Newark's fly-half took advantage of a weakly defended channel close to a breakdown in play and she was able to touch down for the visitors first try. The half-time score, 15-5.

Newark called for uncontested scrums for the second-half and the Angels lost some momentum but soon woke up when Newark upped the pressure on the defence, ending in their No 8 scoring from a crash over for a well-earned try.

Malvern responded through centre Chloe Palmer, who crashed through the flailing arms of four Newark players to add another five points. Then it was the turn of Palmer's fellow centre, Lou Saum to score her second try from a Malvern-won line-out.

Just before the final whistle, Malvern wrapped up the match after their pack stole the scrum and more fast hands and running skills from the backs gave Lou Saum her hat-trick score. Captain and fly-half Debbie Danby converted the last elusive kick of the match to end the game 32-10 to the Malvern Angels.

The Angels' player-of-the-match award went to flanker Abi Rhodes .

The next league fixture for the Angels is on Sunday, October 9, when they make the long trip to Eccleshall.