Sat 29 Oct 2022
Bridgnorth travelled to Lichfield's Cooke Fields ground in good spirits after their previous week's success against Kenilworth with the Bridgnorth alickadoos being treated to an excellent lunch by the Lichfield committee and supporters.
The game started with an atmosphere more akin to a pre-season friendly than a level five league clash of clubs, perhaps this atmosphere permeated to the Bridgnorth team as they lost their first two lineouts and failed to take advantage of good early possession. Bridgnorth then got into gear with George Bvuma making a good overlapping move and Will Biddell being held up over the line. The Bridgnorth scrum gained early dominance and number 8 Connor Nicholls reacted quickest to a collapsing scrum to score the game's first try. Strong attacking play by Lichfield was then halted by a good clearance by Elliot Murphy, Lichfield continued to attack but in what was a theme to their afternoon the final pass failed to go to hand.
While Bridgnorth continued to scrummage well, their lineout was far less convincing and was a regular cause of lost possession. With this being the case it was curious to see second row Morgan French standing in the Bridgnorth backs for their lineout, however after winning a lineout midway through the first half a clever screen pass to Morgan French (lining up in the backs) saw him galloping forward to offload to George Newman to score a well worked try converted by Elliot Murphy.
Both sides continued to attack well but failed to convert pressure into points, the Bridgnorth defence held firm with Will Biddell making strong tackles as the last line of defence and good jackal tackles from the Bridgnorth flankers Luis Evitt and Adam Ellis.
As the first half neared its conclusion, very good interplay between George Bvuma and George Newman sent Connor Nicholls in for another try converted by Murphy. The score at half time was Lichfield 0-17 Bridgnorth.
Lichfield started the second half well and their open attacking play required strong defence from Bridgnorth, another lost lineout by Bridgnorth saw Lichfield being held up over the line. Lichfield continued to apply pressure and Bridgnorth were adjudged to have stopped an attacking drive illegally with replacement Loti Molitika being sent to the bin almost as soon as he came on to the pitch. The resulting five metre lineout to Lichfield was not straight however and Bridgnorth relieved the pressure with good play off the scrum.
Bridgnorth scored their next try after a poor clearance by Lichfield, Connor Nicholls showed good awareness to pick up the loose ball and feed George Newman who cantered in for another converted try.
Lichfield then attacked well and they scored a good try with an inside pass to their scrum half who crossed for a converted try. Lichfield returned the ball well from the kick off and a penalty was kicked to the corner (with some Bridgnorth players arguing it had gone dead.) The impressive Lichfield inside centre scored an easy try from the resulting lineout which was converted to make the score Lichfield 14-24 Bridgnorth.
Bridgnorth upped their game and their dominant scrum continued to earn them penalties. Off the back of another good scrum a clever pop pass from scrum half Gareth Bladen to blindside winger George Bvuma enabled him to race in for a converted try.
Lichfield did not let their heads drop but another dropped pass saw Connor Nicholls score a try for his hat-trick. Bridgnorth, now playing with confidence, continued to break out in attack and after another good scrum a great pass from centre Dan Spencer-Tonks to Will Bidell enabled the full back to draw the defence and pass the ball to wing Jordan Burgess to score a converted try.
The Bridgnorth scrum was taking no prisoners and the Lichfield pack was further weakened when their prop received a yellow card after another retreating scrum. Bridgnorth continued to attack but failed to score and it took the last play of the game for George Newman to cross for his hat-trick try with Elliot Murphy kicking a wobbling conversion to make the final score Lichfield 14-50 Bridgnorth.
Bridgnorth travel to bottom club Nuneaton next week with the Edgar Davies Ground being prepared for the annual firework display. Bridgnorth will want to keep standards high as a run of four games against clubs in the lower half of the table approaches, however with three of these four clubs winning yesterday it shows that no team in this league can be taken for granted.
MATCH PHOTOS - TAKEN BY ROBERT NICHOLLS (BRIDGNORTH RUGBY CLUB FACEBOOK PAGE) - CLICK HERE!!!
