Midlands Two North – Round 20 Saturday March 16
This weekend Pavs made the trip over to Lichfield RFC in round 20 of The Midlands 2 North competition. In November Pavs handed the Staffordshire side their first league loss with a convincing 33-21 victory at The Stump. This was, in fact, during a spell in which Pavs took 9 wins from 10 games with a virtually unchanged side over an extended period. Whether this engaged the wrath of the rugby gods or not is a moot point, but with a good part of that squad now injured, Pavs were always going to find the going tough against a promotion chasing Lichfield.
Pavs made a bright a breezy start to the game on a soft but good looking surface. Unfortunately, three avoidable errors were then ruthlessly punished by the home side to give them a 19-0 lead on fifteen minutes.
Not to be daunted, Pavs kept battling away and on nineteen minutes a returning Owen Taylor finished off a fine movement to narrow the gap to 19-5. Unfortunately, on twenty seven and twenty nine minutes, Sam Bradley and Owen Taylor had to take a break to recover form knocks to be replaced by Dan Mangham and Dan Hodges respectively. This defensive disruption allowed Lichfield to go further in front with a converted try on thirty three minutes to extend their lead to 26-5.
Three minutes later Will Taylor jinked his way over to touch down and with the Billam extras bring the score to 26-12. This would have a useful half time score, but Pavs defensive frailty again reared its head to allow Lichfield a further converted try on the break.
Half time score 33-12 to Lichfield.
During the break student Dan Flint was replaced by Sam Bradley. Pavs made a much better start to the half and with sixty three minutes on the clock speedy Will Taylor again finished a fine backs move to pin Lichfield back to 33-19.
Pavs could unfortunately not sustain the pressure and Lichfield struck back to go 40-19 up.
On the seventieth minute mark a recovered Owen Taylor took over from Dan “The Fridge” Hodges. Lichfield made use of a weak kick chase to run in from long distance to advance their lead to 45-19 with ten minutes to go.
Pavs then had their best period and pummelled the Lichfield line. The home side defended stoutly, but lost two players to the sin bin. Pavs kept their composure as the newly converted back rower, Harry Kerr silkily dummied his way over the line to bring the score to 45-24 with a few minutes left. Lichfield went in for the final score of the match on the whistle to record a 50-24 victory.
A tough day at the office for the boys. Four excellent tries did much to ameliorate the disappointment Pavs will feel as will the bonus point they will take away. The lads who have come into the squad following the Pavs burgeoning and seemingly unremitting injury list have done a sterling job so far. With just two league games left, Pavs will keep battling away in the normal resilient way. They will seek to reverse a one point away loss to Tamworth RFC this weekend at The Stump this coming Saturday, March 23. All support will be gratefully accepted as Pavs navigate through this somewhat difficult period.
Starting Squad: Kieran Wells, Owen Taylor (1 try), Tom Ryan, Sam Bradley, Alistair Plant, Harry Kerr (1 try), Josh Flanagan, Phil Eggleshaw, Ben Taylor, George Billam (2 conv), Dan Flint, Will Taylor (2 tries), Morgan Jones, Alex Rimmington, Matt Molyneux
Impacts: Dan Hodges, Dan Mangham, Noah Bhatia (ill)
Paviors Rugby Club play at Burntstump Hill, Arnold, NG5 8PQ and the club runs over twenty teams.
New players are always welcome – girls, boys, men & women, there is a team for all.
Further information about the club including contact details can be found on http://www.paviorsrfc.co.uk/ .
