MATCH REPORT

MATCH REPORT | MEN’S 1st XV | SATURDAY 23RD SEPTEMBER 2023
REGIONAL 2 MIDLANDS NORTH (ROUND 4)
MELLISH 07 | 45 LICHFIELD

Lichfield made it three wins on the road when they visited Mellish in NE Nottingham on Saturday. They came into the game with three straight victories, whilst the hosts had lost three times……..and these recent trends never looked like being reversed during a game, which was scrappy at best and might even be described as dysfunctional during the last twenty (plus) minutes with the game won and lost. You can only deal with what’s in front of you in some matches and Lichfield’s seven tries were more than enough to keep them in second spot behind Long Eaton.

The city side were able to give debuts to two more very recent products of the club’s junior system with Josh Butler starting at fly half and Harvey Moss having to mix it in the front row from half time onwards. Additionally, Dylan Whittington slotted in at ‘9’ with only 15 minutes of senior rugby at Lichfield and Freddie Wilson managed more than 30 minutes of action in his first start of the campaign.

Lichfield started too well. In almost a continuation of their warm up, they kept the ball for the first two minutes and Cal Turner rumbled over from a well controlled line out drive, with Charlie Milner slotting over his first (of 5) conversion. For the next 20 minutes they became too loose and unforced errors crept into their play. The result ? The ball was dropped just outside their ‘’22’’, they didn’t defend the subsequent breakdown well enough and winger Josh Mallett scored a converted try for Mellish.

There was some improvement in the Lichfield offensive work, but there were still wrong options, complications, which were non productive. However, the much needed help came when Turner was able to intercept a Mellish pass and he strode home untouched from 75 metres. Ditch Burton then scored a close range try when the home side expected a driven line out. Two further conversions took the score to 19-7 at the break.

Mellish committed ‘’hari-kari’’ at the start of the 2nd half and were down to 13 men, which meant that Burton got a second try from a powerful 5 metre scrum. Danny Griffin, Seb Smith (now in the scrum half shirt) and Kieran Reynolds inflicted further pain to Mellish with further tries and the game became more and more unstructured with little pattern and hence there were no more scores.

The Lichfield squad now moves on to a home game against Walsall this coming Saturday, which will be a real test of their ability, as Walsall have started their season very positively as well with 3 wins from four. Kick off is 3pm with the VP’s luncheon being held at 1pm. This fixture is doubling up as a 1st round county cup match.

Last weekend, the 2s (down to 14 for a long period) came unstuck against Bournville losing 71-26. There was better news on Sunday with the colts winning at Stafford 18-14 in the 1st round of the national colts cup – Stafford are their opponents this Sunday in a league game at Cooke Fields (2pm). All the boys’ junior sides won as well, except the U14s, who just lost to Walsall in the county cup.

The women, under the tutelage of Fraser Goatcher and Kai Lucas-Dumolo, continued their first week successes with two more league victories – the Red team at level 3 won 54-0 at Long Eaton, whilst the Green team at level 5 overcame Oadby Wyggestonians 95-0. The Red team are at home this Sunday at 2:15pm against Shelford, whilst the Green team go to Lutterworth. In the morning there will be games for the junior boys’ teams.

Report | Dave Lewis