Saracens Women v Lichfield Ladies

Review

Lichfield Ladies travelled to Allianz Park to play against last season’s champions Saracens in Round 4 of this season’s fixtures.

Lichfield started the game very strongly and spent most of the first 30 minutes camped in Saracens half, dominating all aspects of the game – particularly the scrum and lineout. But to their credit, Saracens were outstanding in defence and managed to keep Lichfield out.

It was Saracens who scored first after 28 minutes with a try in the corner after some outstanding play through their forwards. They added another converted try after 37 minutes to give them a 14-0 half time lead. An early yellow card in the second half for Lichfield was very well exploited by Saracens, who added two further unconverted tries to after 47 and 49 minutes give them a 24-0 lead.

As the game wore on, Lichfield upped their intensity and found their rhythm again. Following two yellow cards for Saracens, who were becoming increasingly stretched, Lichfield were finally able to score. Katie Trevarthen scored her first try for the club after 74 mins followed by a well taken try from debutant Holly Aitcheson in the 79th minute. Nancy Stone added one conversion and a penalty to make the final score a far more respectable 24-15 to Saracens.

Lichfield Head Coach Richard Bennett said – ‘I was really pleased with the way we started and finished today against the reigning champions. For the first 25 minutes we more than matched them and only their outstanding defence kept us out’

‘Saracens took full advantage of their opportunities and were deserved winners, but this game showed real promise for us. We have several new players this season and another debutant today. It takes time to adjust to the game at this level, but despite the result we are very optimistic’

‘We kept going for the entire 80 minutes and with a bit more accuracy and intensity, we will get the scores and the results as we saw late in this game’