MATCH REPORT

MATCH REPORT
LICHFIELD 50 | 24 PAVIORS
MEN’S 1st XV – REGIONAL 2 MIDLANDS NORTH (ROUND 20) SATURDAY 16TH MARCH 2024

Lichfield produced plenty of evidence on Saturday that they intend on finishing their league campaign in fine, positive style with an eight try victory against a Paviors match squad, which was showing nine changes from the outfit who defeated the city side in November. There was only ever going to be one winner of this contest from the fourth minute onwards.
Both sides came to the stage willing to give it a go. Lichfield edged comfortably in front within fifteen minutes with three tries and, whilst the visitors had already shown ambition with the ball, they could not back it up consistently when they were in their defensive mode. The game carried on in that way for the remaining 65 minutes, delivering an enjoyable spectacle for the former Friary school rugby alumni, who had attended their annual luncheon. Lichfield had the hunger as well to notch up fifty points and, in so doing reached the 100 try mark with the final score at exactly an average of five per game.
The weather once again thwarted the under 13s from playing their county cup final on Sunday. It had been moved to Burton once Tamworth’s pitches were deemed unplayable and then overnight rain put paid to that plan – back to the drawing board. However, the Cooke Fields pitches were playable and both the women’s senior sides won at home to ensure the Red (1s) team win their league and the Green team have put themselves in a strong position to equal this achievement. The 1s defeated Old Albanians, who are second in the league, in a tight game by 17 points to 12 and they have two more home games to celebrate this success in style. The 2s comfortably beat Tamworth 55-0 and with one game to go on 7 April, they have a three point lead over Rugby, who happen to be the opposition at Cooke Fields that day. Winner takes all, without doubt !
Reverting to Saturday’s action, Lichfield were not too far short of that ruthless and relentless streak they showed at Newark two games ago. The ball was kept alive as much as they were allowed to by Paviors, the support was always there to maintain the necessary continuity. It was a satisfying team performance, mention must also go the back row of Freddie Wilson, Ditch Burton and Cal Turner, who were an irritation to the visitors all afternoon, offensively and defensively.
George Billam at 10 and Chris Eggleshaw at 8 are two wily, experienced heads in the Paviors set up, as they had shown in the reverse fixture, and they tried mightily hard to keep their side going in the right direction – centre Morgan Jones was not too far behind them. Their reward was a try bonus point for a hard day at the office.
Lichfield’s version of a blitz defence worked well on four minutes, so much so that Kai Lucas-Dumolo intercepted a pass on his ‘’22’’ and ran off unopposed to the posts 75 metres away. Five minutes later a blind side break on half way ended with Burton strolling over and the backs then produced a fine piece of play from first phase to release Paul Maxwell-Keys for try number three. Lucas-Dumolo added two of his four conversions to leave the home side 19-0.
Strangely, Paviors had had more possession to this point and this was confirmed when they produced a cleverly worked try for hooker, Owen Taylor, in the corner. Encouraged, the visitors produced a much better defensive effort until the 35th minute, at which stage they ran out of numbers defensively and Burton picked a perfect line to score by the posts for his 14th of the season, the same as Maxwell-Keys – game on apparently. The half ended with Jones scoring for Paviors from scrappy line out possession (26-12).
Lichfield scored almost immediately after the break with Lucas-Dumolo scampering clear of the cover after Paviors’ defence went missing rather too easily. Paviors responded, however, and suddenly found themselves playing against thirteen men following two quick yellow cards and they eventually were able to exploit this mismatch of numbers with Jones getting his second. Once again, quickly recycled possession from the Lichfield forwards produced an opportunity for Dylan Whittington to comfortably beat the last man (still with only 13 on the pitch), Adam Spinner converting.
David Mott added the seventh sprinting clear of a gallant pursuer and Tom Day finished off the scoring in the clubhouse corner – where else ? – after Harry Kerr exploited a clear overlap to earn some reward for the visitors after a tough examination of their credentials by an energetic Lichfield side.
Next week, the show moves on to West Bridgford (Nottingham) with a few different acts probably required, kick off is 3pm. Their ground is on Stamford Road, parking in the ground is very restricted, but there is plenty of handy street parking. The women’s Red team are off to Liverpool St Helens next Sunday for their semi final tie in the national Intermediate cup as they strive to do a league and cup double in the club’s 150th year.
Report c/o
Dave Lewis