The sun shone as Lichfield RUFC’s players produced an equally dazzling display to win 54-29 at Stratford.

The hosts had already beaten both Old Halesonians and Worcester this season – the only sides above Lichfield in the table – so the Greens were well aware of the size of their task.

The game started at a furious pace as the visitors reeled off a full repertoire of expansive plays.

Three early tries were Lichfield’s reward for such a strong start to the game, with Tom Adams, Dan Rowlands and Brad Rowlands going over.

A proud Stratford XV were not about to roll over though and they hit back with an interception try against the run of play on 30 minutes.

If they thought this would be the start of a comeback, they were quickly reminded of Lichfield’s attacking qualities. Ollie Winter capped an impressive first half display with an individual try, before Greg Massey rounded off the half in style by capitalising on a break from Richard Burton. Greg also added three first half conversions to bring the half time score to 7-33.

In the second half, Stratford came storming out the traps, meeting the Greens with an intensity that they had failed to muster in the opening 40. Keeping more ball in hand, the home side hit back with two quick fire scores. Firstly the loose-head prop burrowed over from close range, and just four minutes later full-back Joe Cook showed a good turn of pace to score from long range.

Stung into action, Lichfield began to re-assert their dominance in the game with tries six and seven for the day. Greg Massey showed some neat footballing skills to score his second – just four minutes before Burton put the game beyond Stratford with a try that was richly deserved for his overall display. Both efforts were converted by fly-half Luke Massey.

With the shackles firmly off, both sides continued to entertain in the final quarter which brought a further flurry of tries.

Greg Massey showed great speed to complete his hat-trick try, converted by Luke, but it was then left to Stratford to complete the day’s scoring and pick up a hard earned try bonus point. Tom Hall and James Kennedy were the beneficiaries as they brought a degree of respectability to the final score of 29-54.

Next week Lichfield travel to play Old Halesonians, who were confirmed as Midlands 1 winners last weekend. Kick off 3pm.

Lichfield: McDonough, Gabbitass, Bassett (c), Taylor, Squire, Thompson, Milner, Burton; Evans, L Massey, B Rowlands, Winter, Adams, D Rowlands, G Massey. Subs: Machin, Maxwell-Keys and W Cotterhill.