Sunday 23rd October 2022

Lichfield U16’s v Longton U16’s – Friendly Match

Written by Will Parker

Weather conditions, incessant rain all morning prior to kick off, pitch fair but soft in places, a little standing water.
Match played on second team pitch, Lichfield kicked off playing away from the Clubhouse in the first half. Kick off 11:04am

1st min Try to Lichfield. From the kick off the Longton player fumbled the ball which was collected by Lucas Laing who passed along the line to Ruben Slack who in turn fed Ollie Bill who had the strength to dive over in the corner. Congrats on your first Lichfield points Ollie!

Conversion from the 22 and touchline successful by Lewis Smith

Lichfield 7 – 0 Longton

14 mins Try to Lichfield. After securing the line out from a penalty kick, the ball was driven infield by a succession of rucks before being moved back to the left before a final ruck was set up with Will Smith picking up and stretching his long frame and arms over to touch down 15 metres in from the left hand touchline

Conversion unsuccessful

Lichfield 12 – 0 Longton

25 mins Try to Lichfield. From a Longton penalty 5m from the Lichfield line, the ball was moved along their backs, the ball was intercepted by Cav Boylan in the 22 who then ran the length of the pitch to score under the posts.

Conversion successful by Lewis Smith

Lichfield 19 – 0 Longton

Half Time – Lichfield 19 – 0 Longton

Due to an injury Pete Willoughby replaced Mark Harris as Referee at half time

41 mins Lichfield Try. Freddie Clarkson perfectly jackalled the ball from the big Longton Centre, the ball came free and was gathered by a Lichfield player before being moved to the left and into Ruben Slack’s arms who broke 3 tackles along the touchline, was brought down just short of the line where he cleverly released the ball, got to his feet, regathered the ball and moved in field to score 5m in from the touchline

Conversion unsuccessful

Lichfield 24 – 0 Longton

45 mins Lichfield Try. From a Lichfield tap penalty in the Longton 22 Lucas Laing displayed his famous ‘dancing feet’ stepping inside the Longton 10 before offloading to Charlie Semple who showed his strength to carry over from the permitted second movement to the right hand side of the posts

Conversion successful by Lewis Smith

Lichfield 31 – 0 Longton

62 mins Try to Lichfield. Lichfield were awarded a penalty after the Longton prop took a player out in the maul illegally. From the resultant lineout 5m from the line Lichfield played the ball off the top, the ball was moved to Lucas Laing who dummied before releasing the ball to Charlie Semple who crashed over to the right hand side of the posts

Conversion successful by Lewis Smith

Lichfield 38 – 0 Longton

64 mins Try to Longton. Lichfield were penalised for not releasing the ball in the tackle at a ruck, Longton kicked for touch but missed, Lewis Smith caught the ball and kicked ahead for Will Smith to gather who was adjudged offside. From the quick tap penalty Longton crashed over from 5m out to the left hand side of the field

Conversion unsuccessful

Lichfield 38 – 5 Longton

68mins Try to Longton. Lichfield appeared to have gone to sleep and were giving away unnecessary penalties for lazy infringements, as a result Longton moved the ball away quickly to the left from a tap penalty for the Hooker to score in the corner again
Conversion unsuccessful

Lichfield 38 – 10 Longton

Full Time – Lichfield 38 – 10 Longton

It was a real surprise the game went ahead because of the weather in truth, and you Lads could have been distracted by the build up as a result, but your performance for 75% of the game was very good, only taking your foot off the gas in the last ten minutes which is something you’ll need to work on. There were good passages of team play and linking up with the processes we work on being executed well which is hugely rewarding for us as Coaches to see, and no doubt your parents too so well done all, a very good team performance in the main.

The only slight negative was our discipline in giving penalties away again, we appear to be making the same mistakes week in and week out and we need to eliminate this from our game. However, to beat Longton by that margin should not be dismissed, they sent a committed team to play us and they were up for the challenge, we were just that bit better at converting our opportunities on the day. So well done to all involved, this was a whole squad performance built over the weeks of training / playing together

Acknowledgement must be given to Longton who stepped into this fixture at late notice following a cancellation by the planned opposition. Similar to Lichfield, Longton have a large squad. They chose a match day squad that enabled both teams to provide players with game development time in a competitive environment.