Lichfield Ladies v Richmond Women

Review

In round 9 of the RFU Women’s Premiership games Lichfield Ladies welcomed league leaders Richmond to Cooke Fields and in a very entertaining game of rugby, Richmond held on to a narrow victory to end Lichfield’s  winning run.

Richmond started the game well, pressurising Lichfield from the start, but it was Lichfield who took the lead when full back Sarah Nicholas coolly stroked over a penalty after 4 minutes. Richmond responded strongly, drawing level after 9 minutes through a penalty from fly half Jackie Shiels. Lichfield then found themselves defending for most of the first half, as a quality Richmond side tested them to the limit.

Lichfield had their outstanding no.8 Emily Braund yellow carded for repeated offences on 25 minutes, Richmond scoring three tries before half time through Becky Ball (11 mins), Emma Croker (30 minutes) and Oli Davies on the stroke of half time. One conversion made the half time score 20-3 to Richmond.

In the second half, it was a much different story with a reorganised Lichfield showing real spirit and fighting back hard. Their first success came after 50 minutes when Vicky Jackson attempted a kick through, gathered the ball and put winger Jasmine Coyne in, she used her searing pace to beat the defence and touch down under the posts. Sarah Nicholas duly added the conversion to bring the score to 10 – 20.

With Lichfield putting continued pressure on the Richmond defence, their next score came after 55 minutes when brilliant young star Amy Cokayne broke through three tackles, rounded the full back and sprinted over the line. Sarah Nicholas, again added the conversion and the scoreline was 17-20, with 25 minutes remaining.

Despite having several good opportunities and with Richmond’s Tess Forsberg yellow carded for repeated offside, Lichfield were not able to score any further points, resulting in Richmond holding on to a narrow 20-17 victory.

Commenting on the game, Lichfield’s Head Coach Rich Bennett said “In the first half Richmond showed us just why they are league leaders, but despite being under continual pressure I thought we were excellent in defence throughout the team”.

“This really was a game of two halves and in the second half, once we managed to exert  more control to get more consistent possession of the ball in line with our game plan, we clearly showed that we can play some great rugby against an excellent  side. In the end, I thought we were very unlucky not to convert a number of good chances into points and take the win. But overall, it was a very encouraging performance against the league leaders. Credit to Richmond for taking the win”