Leicester Tigers secured a 45-17 win over Henley Hawks on Sunday in their final warm-up for the club’s first-ever season in women’s league rugby,

The Tigers’ women’s team begin their Championship North 1 campaign next weekend at Bishop Auckland after three pre-season fixtures against Bristol Bears, London Irish and Henley.

After conceding a first-minute try at Henley, Tigers replied with scores from lock Georgia Westwood (2) and back-rower Roisin McBrien, plus two conversions from Ellie Turner, to lead 19-7 on 35 minutes.

Then in a frantic 15-minute spell either side of the halfway mark, Henley scored twice and Lucrezia Iavarone added a fourth try for Tigers who led by nine points before pulling away in the last quarter.

Tanya Bird and Morgan Richardson tries were converted by replacement Emelia Twesigye, and Molly Draycott provided the final score.

Vicky Macqueen, the club’s head of women’s rugby, said after the game: “It was a good overall performance. The set-piece went well, defence was good, workrate was what we wanted and we showed we can score tries in different ways.

“All 25 in the travelling squad got some good gametime and now we’ve got some really difficult decisions to make about selection for the first league game.”