Kidderminster Carolians U15’s v Lichfield U15’s – Friendly Match – 14th November 2021

Chief Sports Writer: Will Parker

KO 11:00am – Lichfield playing away from the Clubhouse in the first half and receiving the kick off. Weather mild for the time of year, ground firm to soft

2 mins – Kidderminster try, Lichfield were very unlucky here. After some concerted Lichfield pressure, with great ball retention and going through their processes effectively recycling at the ruck, the ball was unfortunately dropped in the centres and recovered by Kidderminster who moved the ball left to their centre. He showed an explosive turn of pace to outstrip the defence and score under the posts.

Conversion successful

10 mins – Kidderminster try. Lichfield were penalised for a high tackle (which is a weekly occurrence and a habit we need to rid ourselves of). The penalty was kicked to touch and from the resulting line out Kidderminster attempted a driving maul which Lichfield defended very well, however Kidderminster then moved the ball out to the onrushing Flanker who scored from 5m.

Conversion successful

There were no more scores this half but that doesn’t really tell the story of the half. Lichfield were very good at the set pieces, line out and scrum particularly, taking several of the Kidderminster scrums against the head, but were unable to effectively set up phases of play to create space for our runners. Our best passage of play came in the last 2 minutes of the half, again we had great ball retention and recycled the ball at consecutive rucks creating a chance from 10m out to the right of the Kidderminster posts. Unfortunately we knocked the ball on and the lines were cleared.

Half time Kidderminster Carolians 14 - 0 Lichfield

The second half started much like the first half had been, very stop start. The referee was correctly pinging the infringements of both teams unfortunately this led to neither team maintaining any continuity in their play. Lichfield defended very well - but couldn’t quite get their game going smoothly and taking the wrong options at crucial times didn’t really help either. Kidderminster were generally disciplined in trying to keep their shape and go through their processes but also made a number of unforced handling errors with lapses of concentration.

57 mins Kidderminster try. An error by Lichfield in their own 22 where we failed to clear our lines from a scrum and knocked the ball on led to Kidderminster regathering the loose ball and setting up a couple of recycled rucks before scoring in the corner

Conversion successful

Right at the end of the game there was a scuffle - once settled down a Lichfield player headed to the sin bin with a yellow card and a Kidderminster player left the field with a red. The referee decided enough was enough and blew for the end of the game to diffuse the situation. The Lichfield boys, whilst all understandably frustrated took a moment to compose themselves then behaved admirably congratulating the victors as we would have expected them to. This is the rugby way – well done boys.

Final score Kidderminster Carolians 21 – 0 Lichfield

Post Match Analysis:

Kidderminster were very well drilled and disciplined in defence, they also had a very good Flanker who played right on the edge of the laws as all good Flankers tend to. He was particularly good at ‘jackalling’ over the ball at the ruck either winning ball back for his team, or forcing Lichfield into conceding penalties. We need to take note of this boys, and work hard on this aspect of our game, it really damaged us today.

We also need to work on our game management and understand when we should kick, and when we should run the ball and in what areas of the pitch. Kidderminster made most of the right choices today but to our credit we were resolute in our defence and worked really hard, with no lack of commitment and effort – we just need to be a little more savvy boys.

It’s not all negatives though we can be proud of our effort today, Kidderminster haven’t been beaten this season, they are a very good side. Their coach was very complimentary advising that we gave them easily their hardest test to date and we were in the game making it a contest all the way. Lads, when we click into gear we will be awesome but it won’t just happen, we have to step up and take responsibility for our performances and continue working hard in training – let’s do it lads!