Lichfield Colts v Stafford Colts - 10.3.24

Stafford ran out of steam in the final ten minutes of a hotly contested quarter final clash in atrocious conditions at Lichfield.
With several games around the county being called off it was a surprise that the match went ahead with the pitch quickly resembling a mud bath as players struggled to find their feet.
Stafford were without a couple of key players and had others not fully recovered from illness and injury but gave a good account of themselves as they kept the game on an even keel for around an hour.
Lichfield put points on the board with a penalty after only three minutes. It could have been worse as the referee penalised the visitors twice more in the early exchanges and Stafford were grateful to the boot of Dylan Shrehorn getting them out of trouble with some booming clearances.
After 15 minutes Stafford had their best chance when Ashton Guy broke free from a line out and made his way down the blindside. The ball was eventually recycled through the hands of the backs with first Ellis Millard and then Ollie Croft going close.
But Stafford were soon on level terms. An intelligent box-kick from the creative Sam Edwards pinned Lichfield back in their own 22. As the opposing winger tried to escape, he was hauled down by the indefatigable Charlie Kirby and conceded a penalty - with Shrehorn making no mistake from the tee.
It was 3-3 at the break with Stafford probably shading the first half in performance - but could not convert their possession and territorial advantage into more points. Lichfield’s game plan was to just keep going through the phases using their powerful forwards and rarely shipping the ball to the back line when the try line was in sight.
The rain fell constantly through the game making the pitch more treacherous. Despite this the Colts handling was impressive - when just holding onto the slippery ball was becoming more of a problem as the match wore on. An indication of how difficult the conditions were was when a Seb Conaghan restart became a grubber kick as the ball failed to bounce on the sodden surface.
The second half did not start well. Stafford won a scrum against the head but the ball shot backwards and, with players sprawling on the ground to get hold of it, it was Lichfield who managed to kick through before touching down for the first try of the match.
It could have been worse but for Freddy Sutton pulling off a fantastic last-ditch tackle as a giant Lichfield forward had only the Stafford full back between him and the try line.
Ten minutes in and the visitors had their most sustained period of pressure forcing their opponents to concede a series of infringements. And it was from a cleverly worked penalty move that Charlie Collier went crashing over to once again level the scores at eight a-piece.
Unfortunately as they launched another assault on the Lichfield defence they were hit on the counter attack as a pass wasn’t quite collected and the break-away saw the home side quickly set up camp in the Stafford 22. It led to several phases with forwards trying to crash over and the away team holding out impressively. But Lichfield finally made their pressure count on the hour to go 13-8 up with a scrappy try.
Stafford had given everything. Lichfield continued to play to their forwards strengths and once again it was inevitable their persistence would pay off as they went over in the corner with the last move of the game.
The 18-8 scoreline made it look more comfortable than this quarter final battle actually was.

Coaches Comments:
The best team won today. Everybody gave everything and the forwards put up a hell of a battle in those conditions. Dylan’s kicking in the first half was really good - and Harry Churchill, coming on as hooker, was one of the stand outs in the match.
In the first half we matched them but in the second 35 minutes Lichfield were brilliant at keeping the ball in hand and playing in our area. They played better in the conditions than we did and deserved to win. But we cannot fault the lads - just sometimes we made the wrong decisions - for example throwing the ball away when it was important to keep hold of it.