Lindsay Anfield hails York Valkyrie's determination at Wigan

Tries from Lisa Parker and Izzy Brennan, alongside four goals from the latter, saw York overcome atrocious conditions at Leigh Miners Rangers’ Sutton Park to leapfrog their opponents and move into third place in the Betfred Women’s Super League table.

“It definitely wasn’t a perfect performance by any stretch of the imagination,” Anfield told The Press.

“We’ve got a lot to work on, but there was a lot of grit and determination. We got the win and that was all we needed from that.”

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The Valkyrie made the worst possible start in the pouring rain, with Eva Hunter breaking through their defensive line before feeding the supporting Molly Jones to score from the very first set.

York though rallied, and had the game turned on its head by the quarter-hour after Parker and Brennan both crashed over the whitewash.

And they extended their lead from the tee soon after, opting for the points on offer after having won a penalty on the 20-metre line.

Wigan finished the half with 12 players after Hunter collided with Emma Kershaw in the air, but they were back to their full complement when the Valkyrie added their next points in the 48th minute after interference at the play-the-ball.

Brennan again opted for the points after a high tackle in front of the posts but despite Grace Banks’ late effort setting up a tense final five minutes, York’s defence held out to keep their chance of a home play-off tie still alive.

Anfield admits that whilst it was disappointing to see her side’s defence so quickly breached, she could not have asked more from them in response.

“I was really pleased with how they responded,” the director of rugby enthused.

“It wasn’t a great start and that right-side defensive edge is something that we’ve worked really hard on, so for them to pierce that in the first set was quite frustrating.

“But we’ve got time to train and fix those things up and we came back to get the win.

“I thought in the second half it was a pretty gutsy performance and pretty fierce in defence so that’s all I can ask of them.”

Torrential rain made conditions tough for both sides. (Image: Alan Milner/Milner Creative/York RLFC)

Whilst the conditions forced both teams to go back to basics, Anfield believes that was beneficial to the Valkyrie, without main playmaker and captain Tara Jane Stanley for the remainder of the season after an ACL injury sustained in last week’s win at Leeds.

“The conditions were a massive factor,” she explained. “All of our backline stuff seemed just to go to ground unfortunately.

“But having said that, when you play down the middle channel you’re always going to stay in the game and I thought ‘if we can just keep doing that, we might just sneak over and get a few penalties or force them to defend up in their 20-metres’.

“We managed to do it and we were successful at the end of it.

“Back to basics was all that we could do in that game. You’ve lost your captain, your kicker, your full-back who is heading up your defence, and she’s integral in attack as well. You’ve pretty much lost all the facets of your team.

“Other players have had to step up, and I’m extremely proud of them for doing so. But [being without Stanley] is going to affect everything isn’t it.”