YORK City Knights Ladies' stunning 68-0 Women's Challenge Cup win over Widnes Vikings has emphasised to coach Daryl North just how important life in Super League is.

The Knights were accepted into the expanded top flight this year following their Merit League successes last term but have so far struggled against the country's best teams, yet to pick up a point in four outings.

However, they showed just why they can be classed a Super League side when thrashing Championship outfit Widnes in Sunday's opening round of the cup.

And, although North says his team were made to work for the win, he suggested the way his side were able to control proceedings was evidence they were better suited to the top tier of English women’s rugby.

“I said to the girls that this was our time to show we should be in the Super League," explained North, who has embraced the steep learning curve his squad are on.

“People have said we shouldn’t be there, but if we had been in the Championship, we wouldn’t have learned anything so it shows we need to be up with the best.

“We don’t want to be being beaten heavily every week in week out, but we don’t want it like in the Merit Leagues when we were winning games by that margin regularly.

“We want to be competing against the best and it’s only a matter of time before the results come.”

Before the match, North said he was hopeful a good win would give the Knights a deserved boost for when they return to league action on Sunday with a tough trip to Wigan Warriors.

They duly gave a 13-try show which included hat-tricks from Daisy Sanderson, Ellie Hendry and player-of-the-match Nat Carr. Other touchdowns came from Ash Hyde, Kate Thompson, Paige Stevens and Ellena Powell, with Hendry adding eight goals.

Post-match, North reckoned the “ecstatic” players should take only positives from their display.

He said: “The level and speed are different in the Super League, but I’m hoping the girls will take that performance and step it up another level.

“We played really, really well. Obviously, it was against a Championship side, which let us play the way we want to play.

“We dictated the speed whereas in Super League it’s normally the other teams that do that.

“I know I enjoyed it myself. We played some really good rugby. I’d like to say we played through them, but we had to break them down and had to score some fantastic tries.

“It was a really good attacking performance by us.

“It was very good to see – everybody was ecstatic. The highlight for me was when we were about 50-0 up and Widnes knocked on from a kick and everybody cheered.

“If we had been winning by only two points or so, we’d have been thinking it was an opportunity to score but there you could see everybody was enjoying it.

“Everything went right for us and they enjoyed the full game.

“I know for a fact it will be a massive boost. It would be good for any team to win by that margin.”