Lichfield 38 v Bedworth 36

By Alan Foster

Bedworth lose out by closest of margins!!!

Midlands 1 West

Bedworth embarked on a tough trip to Lichfield on Saturday afternoon and with the sun blazing it was going to be a tiring afternoon for both sides. Both sets of supporters were treated to an excellent afternoon of Rugby with both sides producing some exceptional attacking play.

Bedworth stunned the hosts early on when straight from the kick off they forced Lichfield into several handling errors. Bedworth’s pack got the upper hand and from a collapsed maul Alan Foster had the chance to open the scoring with a penalty kick at goal. The ball clattered the post and fell to a Lichfield player who was met by a barrage of Bedworth players to be driven over his own line. This resulted in a five metre scrum to the visitors and Adie Hall picked up at the base before linking well with fellow back row Craig Malcolm who drove over the line. Foster sent the conversion through the posts and Bedworth were off the mark 7-0.

Again it was Bedworth who rampaged forward with their pack dominant and after several good carries from Hall and John Robert Allison the men in green and white soon had their second try. Hall picked from the base of a scrum to smash his way over the line. Foster converted and then followed this up with a nicely struck penalty and after 10 minutes gone the home side found themselves 17-0 down and rattled.

Bedworth again still dominant made inroads into the hosts half once again and won great lineout possession. Bedworth kicked the ball away and this gave Lichfield their first opportunity to attack. The home backs were lively and possessed a lot of pace and this was the key to their opening score. The home winger set off down the touchline before linking well with the inside centre to allow him the space to run clear to the line. Lichfield soon had their second try when their fly half ran in unopposed from 40 metres out. The hosts then took the lead when their winger stepped past several would be tacklers before finishing well under the posts.

Bedworth went in at half time leading thanks to Steven Harwood who found himself on the receiving end of an excellent offload from Hall and he raced clear to the line. Foster converted and Bedworth had a three point advantage.

Half Time

Lichfield 21 v Bedworth 24

The second half started well for Lichfield when almost immediately they managed to level the scores with a long range penalty kick when Bedworth were penalised for an offside offence. Both sides had their chances to score but the scores stayed even for the first 20 minutes of the half.

Then the game started to open up with both sides looking for the breakthrough it became end to end with both sides having several good attacking phases of play. Lichfield scored a long range penalty kick and then followed this up with another easy try when again the home side fly half ran through. The conversion was successful and Lichfield had opened up a ten point margin. Bedworth didn’t sit back and they put the hosts under immense pressure which resulted in a dropped ball in the midfield. Steven Harwood reacted quickest to hack the ball forward before gathering and racing into the line for a great solo effort. Foster missed the difficult conversion. Bedworth soon regained the lead when Foster switched play and found a hole in the Lichfield defence before gifting the try scoring pass to Adi Iliff. Foster sent the conversion through the uprights and Bedworth regained the lead.

Lichfield were not finished and again it was their backline who posed the problems for the visitors. Their outside centre broke before feeding the fullback who dived over in the corner to score. He landed the conversion kick from the touchline and there were two points separating the sides going into the final 5 minutes of the game.

Foster had two chances to snatch the victory for Bedworth one penalty attempt dropping just short of the bar and the other drifting to the left hand side of the upright. Lichfield also missed with a penalty shot and the final whistle sounded to end a highly entertaining game of rugby.

Bedworth knew this was a game that they could have won and rather than leaving Lichfield with the maximum five points had to settle for 2 losing bonus points.

Next week Bedworth host Burton at Rectory Fields with a 3:00pm kick off.