Aylesford Bulls Ladies v Lichfield Ladies

Review

In round 6 of the Women’s Premiership Lichfield visited Aylesford.

Lichfield started really well, immediately going on the offensive and quickly had Aylesford in trouble, the intial pressure paid off when Sarah Nicholas scored the opening try after six minutes. For most of the first half it was a similar story, with Lichfield dominating possession and territory and through their outstanding forwards, winning most of the scrums. This created a number of scoring opportunities which Lichfield took, with further tries from Ros Crowley, Holly Aitcheson, Molly Morrissey and Katie Trevarthen. Two conversions from Sarah Nicholas made the score 0-29 after 28 minutes.

Aylesford then began to get some possession and were eventually able to score just before half time making the score 7-29.

The second half was a different story, Lichfield added another converted try from Lucy Nye just after half time, but Aylesford then began to get more consistent, good quality possession and scored two tries with one conversion, bringing the score to 19-36 after 60 minutes.

As the second half continued, Lichfield regained control and possession and scored again through a converted Sarah Nicholas try after 72 minutes. With Aylesford scoring again at the final whistle the final score was 24-43.

Commenting on the match, Lichfield’s Head Coach Rich Bennett said “I thought we were outstanding in the first half, playing patient, controlled  and disciplined rugby. We created plenty of scoring opportunities and we were clinical in taking them, securing the try scoring bonus point within the first 30 minutes.

Aylesford came back into the game in the second half with more possession and more fluency as we gave them space and more time.

Overall, I thought we thoroughly deserved the win and our performance was significantly better than in recent weeks. We are continuing to improve as a team but there is plenty more to work on over the coming weeks. In particular, the performance of some of our younger and newer players gives us great cause for optimism”