Lichfield returned to the top of the table after securing a comfortable victory over Wolverhampton at Cooke Fields.
Defeat for front-runners Long Eaton at West Bridgford on Friday night, meant the Myrtle Greens could sense their chance to reclaim their place at the head of the pack – and they made no mistake with a 45-14 scoreline.
The city side were not at their fluent best at any stage of the contest but did more than enough to ensure victory, especially in the second half when they reverted much more to doing the basics better and keeping a simple game plan.
Lichfield were soon ahead as the forwards won some quick possession from a series of rucks and Paul Maxwell-Keys exploited the subsequent gap down the middle.
On 20 minutes the hosts broke out of their own half and Dylan Whittington finished a long range try with ease. Kai Lucas-Dumolo added two conversions – with three later – to take his personal points tally past 100. The 2nd try also took the side past 500 points for the season.
At 14-0 everything was going well enough. There was then a real momentum change as
Wolverhampton started winning some first phase possession and Lichfield conceded too many penalties, so suddenly the visitors were monopolising possession and territory. They were very good at keeping the ball, but their attack was limited most of the time to pick and go from the forwards.
Right on half time, Wolverhampton’s reward came as Peter McMahon scored from two metres out, Joseph McKaig converted.
In the second period, Lichfield rightly resorted to more pragmatic rugby and five tries were accrued at regular intervals to seal victory.
Captain Charlie Milner scored two, Maxwell-Keys took his season’s total to ten with a second, fellow centre Kieran Higgins and David Mott were the other try scorers.
Wolverhampton, who now have a massive task to avoid being relegated, finished with another pick and go converted try.
Elsewhere the women’s green team made the short journey to Tamworth where they won 44-10 to go above Old Sills and Rugby with three games to go.
Idil Abdi, Rachel Squires and Chelsey Grimley were the stand out performers.
The men’s 3rds were also in action and won their league match at Barton 24-5, while the Colts won 29-7 in a friendly at Kidderminster.
