PAVIORS 12 | 41 LICHFIELD

Round 20 of 22

As Hemo (DOR) was quick to point out to the players after the 18th win of the season, this was a banana skin in hiding, yet for the majority of the game Lichfield dealt capably with confining it to the proverbial disposal bin. No slip, a six try bonus point victory instead.

Lichfield totally bossed the first half and reached the turn round leading 29-5, it probably should have been more, but some credit must go to Paviors for lots of scrambling defence. The knock on effect, however, was the fuel/energy tank was much lower than they wanted with 40 minutes still to go and by the end they out on their feet.

There was parity in the lines out and scrums, so the visitors had enough ball to run the bigger Paviors pack around and, at times, they were really clinging on. Paul Maxwell-Keys opened the scoring after 10 minutes and the lead was extended to eight by a Kai Lucas-Dumolo penalty soon after – only the side’s tenth so far this campaign.

Lichfield were penalised at the resultant kick off and in the home side’s first visit to the red zone, they scored after Lichfield resisted a driven maul and a thrust on the left edge before back row, Tom Gladwin, dropped over the line. The result was more pressure coming in the direction of the Paviors try line. As the opening half wore on, there were further tries for the Lichfield back line with Rhys Davies proving too powerful for three defenders, Lucas-Dumolo, who also added four conversions, cutting back across the grain to score and then Maxwell-Keys ran in from 50 metres unopposed.

The second period was different, Lichfield probably dropped down a notch and the home side had better territorial positions as a consequence. They could not recycle the possession quickly enough to really stretch the Lichfield defence and the score remained unchanged for over 20 minutes. Eventually, Chris Eggleshaw managed to dive over and George Billam converted, unusual if they don’t both register points for their side (29-12).

That produced a reaction from the city side and a lot of the rest of the game was spent in the Paviors half, as they started to tire visibly, especially with the warm conditions. Towards the end there was a very rare try for Sam Craddock, even he could not remember his last league score (6+ years ?), as he ‘’raced’’ over from 10 metres out (maybe not that far), and right at the death, Kieran Higgins went over under the posts with no one at home. A satisfying job done for the myrtle greens.

Yet again, as far as the league positions are concerned, nothing has changed in the battle for top position after the weekend games. The playing records so far of Lichfield and Dronfield are so similar in most respects – with one big difference, the former has earned three more bonus points. There is another fallow Saturday coming up before the action returns on 22 March, at home to Tamworth at 3pm, while the Derbyshire side go to West Bridgford.

There was no league game for the 2s, they are back in action this Saturday at home to Lutterworth 2nd XV at 3pm. A reminder that there is a vets 15 a side tournament on Friday evening (Friday Night Lights) from 6pm with four local sides competing alongside a Lichfield VXV
c/o Dave Lewis