The men’s 1st XV grabbed another maximum 5 point league victory at the home of Rugby based, Newbold on Avon, never the easiest of places to come away with any success, although unusually this was their fourth home loss this season.

With just four rounds of matches to go for the Myrtle Greens, they maintained their points difference over Stoke and Kenilworth as they topped the 95 league points mark with this win.

Both sides contributed hugely to an exciting and fluid game of rugby, which left both sets of supporters unsure as to what the final outcome could or would be.

After Newbold dropped the kick off, Lichfield hammered away at the Newbold line for the opening minutes and it was no surprise when Josh Machin fired over with the opener...although it didn’t take long for the home side to show their ability to keep the ball alive and exploit some rare loose defending to even matters at 7-7.

Lichfield, aided by a gusting wind, took control of the next phase of the match with further tries being added by Cam Pallister and Greg Massey to give hope that this might not be as hard a task as was first feared (19-7).

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case as Newbold conjured up two clinically taken tries, either side of a penalty, to set against another smart try for ‘’Lich’’ calmly finished by Ditch Burton.

We arrived at half time with Lichfield leading just, by 24-22 (bonus point admittedly earned), the hosts now had use of the significant breeze and began to show real quality in their back line, which caused more problems to the city side than any other set of backs. Pleasingly for Lichfield, Newbold's form of attack in the 2nd period was concentrated more through the forwards.
Newbold did briefly take the lead with a straightforward penalty from Jamie Mapletoft, but Lichfield found sufficient possession to regain the lead with Paul Maxwell-Keys scoring from close range. There was now a six point margin.

The referee became more and more uncomfortable with the break down area and with Newbold benefiting and Mapletoft was able to bring his side back to parity with two more penalties.
Whilst both sides showed potential with the ball, making it difficult to gauge who might eventually pull clear, there were signs that the visitors were the fitter side and after more close range pounding, Burton barged over for what was to become the winning try with just under ten minutes to go. Crucially, Charlie Milner’s fourth conversion gave Lichfield the cushion of a seven point lead, which they didn’t relinquish.

A good game, played in the right spirit by all 36 players; Lichfield had earned a 19th try bonus victory of the campaign, but Newbold unluckily received only one point as they couldn’t add to their three tries in the first half. Captain, Charlie Milner, was pleased with the ‘’character’’ shown by his side in claiming this important win.

Dave Lote
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