With Long Eaton losing at West Bridgford on Friday night, Lichfield took the opportunity to make it to the top of the league again on Saturday at Cooke Fields with a comfortable victory by seven tries to two. The city side were not at their fluent best at any stage of the contest, but did more than enough to ensure victory, especially in the 2nd half when they reverted much more to doing the basics better and keeping a simple game plan. That is all they needed to do to succeed with due respect to their visitors.
So, at the end of month 1 of Year 150, Lichfield now have three sides at the head of their respective leagues, as both the women’s Red and Green teams are also in poll position with the Green team too good for Tamworth (away) on Sunday afternoon. These leagues are yet to be won, however, the boys’ U15s are now county champions after a tight game and with a small margin of victory over Burton in front of an excited and voluble crowd from both clubs. This can’t be taken away from the group and the boys’ U13s made it to their county final by defeating Telford 35-20 at Telford, also on Sunday.
Dealing with events chronologically, it only took three minutes for centre, Euan Murray of West Bridgford, to open his and his side’s account against the then leaders after his three tries against ‘Lich’ the week before. It was a classy, pacy finish again and his second with 20 minutes to go was from an identical move to one they used the previous game and this opened up a 31-24 lead after Long Eaton’s forwards had steadily ground the home forwards into being second best. Eventually, the home side won 41-31 to now have an 8 game unbeaten run to their name (9 technically, one has been disallowed by the RFU). Yet this was after Long Eaton’s scrum half (4th back row !!) and coach, Murray McConnell, had helped himself to three tries from a sum total of 10 metres, as he spotted weaknesses in some tired defence.
Back to Cooke Fields on Saturday, Lichfield were soon ahead as the forwards won some quick possession from a series of rucks and Paul Maxwell-Keys exploited the subsequent gap down the middle. The home side thought they could play loose and fancy free too often, which didn’t tie in Wolverhampton’s defence enough, however, on 20 minutes they broke out of their own half and Dylan Whittington finished this long range try with ease. Kai Lucas-Dumolo added two conversions – with three later – to take his personal points tally past 100; the 2nd try also took the side past 500 points for the season. At 14-0 everything was going well enough. There was then a real momentum change.
Wolverhampton started winning some first phase possession and Lichfield conceded too many penalties, so suddenly the visitors were monopolising possession and territory. They were very good at keeping the ball, but their attack was limited most of the time to ‘’pick and go’’ from the forwards. Right on half time, their reward came as Peter McMahon scored from 2 metres out, Joseph McKaig converted. Lichfield therefore had not got the game won at 14-7.
In the second period, Lichfield rightly resorted to more pragmatic rugby and five tries accrued at regular intervals to seal victory from not one of the best ever games seen at Cooke Fields. Captain, Charlie Milner – looking more match sharp– scored two, Maxwell-Keys took his season’s total to ten with a second, fellow centre Kieran Higgins and David Mott (4 in the last 4) were the other try scorers. Wolverhampton, who now have a massive task to avoid being relegated with Sutton (probably), finished with another pick and go converted try.
The boys’ 15 group, who had won the county title the year before at U14 level, and with victories along the way against Newcastle, Eccleshall and Leek (just), expected a tough battle from Burton and that is what panned out. They gained a lead of 21-7 by half time with three converted tries, however, Burton found an extra gear thereafter to steadily close the gap and they scored their fourth try to bring the score line to 28-26. The conversion was missed, the only one all afternoon from both sides and James Dunn was able to raise the trophy at his home club and Tim Liggins (and his team) now has the job of going for a hat trick in the U16s next year.
The women’s Green team (2s) made the short journey to Tamworth after the finish of the above final for one of their catch up fixtures. In the end, they won comfortably enough by 44-10 to go above Old Sills and Rugby with three games to go, Idil Abdi, Rachel Squires and Chelsey Grimley were the stand out performers, per the coaches.
Finally, but not least, the men’s 3s (not 2s) won their league match at Barton 24-5 and the colts won a friendly at Kidderminster by 29-7.
The men’s 1st XV has no home advantage until 16 March and are off to Newark on Saturday, the ground is on Kelham Road and near the River Trent, as they know only too well, just off the A46. On Sunday, we host the national Intermediate quarter final cup game between our Red team and Cheltenham. Both games start at 14.15 hrs.
Match Photos :Match Photos

Mini-Junior Round-UP Mini-Junior Round Up

Match details

Match date

Sat 27 Jan 2024

Kickoff

14:15

Competition

Regional 2 Midlands North

League position

Lichfield

Wolverhampton

Team overview

MATCH REPORT

LICHFIELD 45 | 14 WOLVERHAMPTON

Match details

Match date

Kickoff

Competition

League position

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