Lichfield RUFC romped to a 74-7 victory over Kenilworth.
The Myrtle Greens set about their task right from the off. It took Josh Massey a mere four minutes to get on the scoresheet after some powerful team play saw the ball moved wide into space for run over in the corner. The conversion was missed, but from the resulting kick off, the ball was released wide and Massey was again on hand to beat several defenders to score in the corner.
The next 15 minutes saw Kenilworth recover from the explosive start and start to play with the ball. The home defence was more than up to the task and repelled the visiting efforts, causing numerous turnovers.
As Lichfield again started to play through their phases, Kenilworth’s defence was drawn in and it was Greg Massey this time who was to break the line and beat the last defender to score. Josh Massey converted to give his side a 17-0 advantage.
There was another arm wrestle in the middle as Kenilworth and Lichfield both forced play and made errors. It took another 15 minutes for The Greens to add to their tally, with excellent forward work leading to Dave Abel diving over. Massey again converted.
On the stroke off half time, the hosts were up to the Kenilworth 22 when Joe Thompson broke the line. With only the full-back to beat, he put in a thunderous hit to send the full back reeling and score his first try of the season. Massey converted and Lichfield went into half time leading 31-0.
The Greens looked to up their accuracy in the second half and build on their advantage, having left a couple of chances out there in the first period.
It took only five minutes for Josh Massey to complete his hat-trick after being fed by brother Greg.
The second half continued very much in the same vein as the first, with Lichfield applying defensive pressure and exploiting the conditions to their advantage. Rich Burton was next to take advantage of this as he benefited from strong forward power play.
Dan Rowlands muscled his way over next and a mistake from the kick off saw Kenilworth regain possession and their winger danced his way around three tackles for a converted score.
This was to be Kenilworth’s only score of the game, as Lichfield scored four more tries in a blistering 15 minutes through Nick Southern, Derrick Squires, Greg Massey and Dan Rowlands to finish the game 74-7 victors.
Lichfield: Gabbitass, Clarke, Bassett (c), Thompson, Southern, Turner, Abel, Burton; Evans, L Massey, J Massey, Maxwell-Keys, Adams, D Rowlands, G Massey. Subs: Squire, Taplin and Wedgwood.
