Lichfield RUFC’s season got off to a flying start with a 31-17 bonus point victory against newly-promoted Old Laurentian.
The city side started the brightest, with new signing Sam Prior making a 40 metre break from the base of the scrum. Excellent support play saw the ball fed to Dan Rowlands to score in the third minute.
But Old Laurentian were quick to respond and took advantage of some poor defending. The ball was spread to the wing where the ball went over in the corner.
Lichfield responded well with the pack in the ascendency, powering their way over the gain line. This created space out wide, and fantastic pass from Greg Massey saw Brad Rowlands released in the 22 to race into the corner, Josh Massey converting.
For every good piece of play, the Cooke Fields side were making too many errors and turning over possession. Old Laurentian made the most of these, some wayward defending allowing their winger to skip through tackles and score under the posts.
The score was level after 25 minutes, but Lichfield increased the intensity and started to find holes when they kept hold of the ball. Camping out on the line, the Myrtle Greens pack created two tries in the space of 10 minutes. Relentless power saw Sam Prior score from close, followed by Nick Southern on the stroke of half time.
The city side went in at half-time leading 24-12 having secured a try bonus point.
The Old Laurentian defence had been resolute, and the Lichfield backs weren’t getting the go forward they’d been used to. The pack continued to work tirelessly, shifting the opposition around the park, but the errors from the first half were still present, and the game was littered with scrum restarts.
A period of pressure from Old Laurentian saw them camped out on the five metre line for almost five minutes. But the Myrtle Greens repelled every attack to the expense of Jonny Evans, who found himself sin binned for killing the ball. The city side held their nerve and regained the ball, but a charged down clearance saw play spread to the wing, where the opposition wing completed his hat-trick.
With the game becoming more open, a loose ball was gathered by Greg Massey who broke through and found his way to the try line with some neat foot work to round-off the victory. Josh Massey duly converted.
Lichfield: Gabbitass, D Clarke, Bassett (c), Thompson, Squire, Southern, Milner, Prior; Evans, L Massey, B Rowlands, Fielding, G Massey, D Rowlands, J Massey. Subs: Machin, Beynon and Adams.