Lichfield Ladies v Wasps Ladies

Review

In round 7 of the Women’s Premiership Lichfield Ladies had a real treat as they were invited by Leicester Tigers to play the fixture as a double header at Welford Road after the Leicester Tigers v Harlequins Aviva Premiership game.

Despite conceding a converted try in the first minute, Lichfield soon regained their composure and focus in an excellent display of attacking rugby.

Lichfield dominated possession throughout the first 30 minutes, their first tries coming from Carys Williams after 5 minutes , Amy Cokayne after 13 minutes and two from Harriet Mills after 20 and 24 minutes. Sarah Nicholas added two conversions and two penalties to give Lichfield a 30-7 lead after 25 minutes. Wasps then began to fight back, with a converted try and penalty bringing the half time score to 30-17

Lichfield began the second half with real purpose and intensity and ended up running in a further six second half tries, from Amy Cokayne(2), Carys Williams, Jasmine Coyne, Hannah Smith and Lucy Nye as their continual pressure and running rugby stretched the Wasps defence. Sarah Nicholas added three conversions to bring the score to 66-17 after 72 minutes. A late unconverted try from Wasps brought the final score to 66-22.

Commenting on the match, Lichfield’s Head Coach Rich Bennett said “This was our best performance of the season by far. We played excellent rugby for long periods throughout the game in exactly the style we want to play.

We worked extremely hard at the break down and in dominating that area of the game we earned lots of possession from which we created plenty of scoring opportunities.

Our shape and our intensity was excellent in both defence and attack, which meant that we were able to keep the pressure on Wasps. We are continuing to progress really well and we are looking forward to our next few games”

Lichfield Ladies Director of Rugby, Becky Williams added “We were delighted to make it a double ‘home’ celebration at Welford Road. We want to say a huge thank you to Leicester Tigers for looking after us so well and for giving us such a fantastic opportunity to showcase our game. We hope to be back very soon”