The Lichfield Development squad turned in a tremendous display of committed defence to eventually run-out convincing winners against the physical visitors from Hereford.
With their team again showing changes and three more debutants, the Greens expected a tough encounter and they were not disappointed. After withstanding a lot of early pressure for the first 20 minutes – including some heroic goal-line defence – the home team’s backs finally broke away. Some lovely inter-passing involving Joe Meehan, Dave Gentle and Tom Cokayne eventually created a try for the latter, which was converted by Neil Antcliffe.
Then followed the best attacking phase of the game for Lichfield which paid off when just before half-time Antcliffe took on the defence all by himself and forced his way over near the posts. He also added the conversion to give the hosts a 14-0 lead.
In the second half the pattern was repeated with the larger Hereford team having a lot of possession, but tenacious defending, particularly around the ruck, constantly frustrated them and when they did get the ball Lichfield always looked the more dangerous team. Even when they went down to 14 men after Joe Townsend was sin-binned, they still held Hereford at bay with some ease.
When back up to their full complement the Lichfield pack even managed to force their way over the line with a rolling maul – with Anthony McDonough claiming the try.
The home defence then managed to hold on until the very last play of the game when one of the Hereford forwards finally got over the line to get them on the scoresheet.
