Playing on the Sixways pitch following Warriors v Moseley, the Womens’ Midlands rivals dished up a real feast of rugby for the 1000 fans who stayed to watch on Saturday.
The game was a brilliant advert for Women’s Rugby with passion, commitment and skill on show in abundance.
The crowd were entertained throughout in a game which saw the lead yo-yo back and forth on seven occasions, with the resulting 24-24 draw probably a fair reflection.
The home side’s opening pressure saw Lichfield concede five penalties in the first ten minutes with Megan Goddard cruelly hitting the post from wide on five minutes, but she then punished the visitors for their indiscretions to give Worcester the lead with a well-struck kick after nine minutes.
The game continued at a ferocious pace and Worcester appeared to be in the ascendency, however an excellent line-break by Vicky Jackson gave the visitors the lead, with Tash Jones adding the extras.
After 14 minutes, the home side came back with some exciting and pacey backs play, with Lydia Thompson and Steph Johnston featuring prominently. It was no surprise when Johnston collected a clearance to feed Sam Bree, who showed incredible pace beating three defenders to put Worcester back in the lead and Ceri Large converted.
From the Worcester fans’ perspective, there was a puzzling decision to award Lichfield a penalty try after 26 minutes when the home side were judged to have not retreated after a quick tap-and-go from Mo Hunt. Sarah Nicolas, who had an excellent game at full-back, converted for the visitors.
Lichfield would not lie down and their power play through the centre, with Vicky Jackson asking searching questions of the Worcester defence, saw a further penalty to the visitors converted by Nicolas.
It was 17-17 at half-time with all to play for.
Lichfield started the second-half strongly, penning the home side in their own half for 15 minutes, however, their efforts came to nothing when Bree intercepted a pass to score a brilliant athletic try under the posts from her own 22. Ceri Large again took the extras to give Worcester the edge once more.
Worcester were forced to use all of their replacements due to injuries, whilst Lichfield had the relative luxury of being able to make tactical changes, which eventually took its toll on the home side and after a period of sustained pressure, and missed tackles, Emily Braund drove over the line for the visitors with Nicolas again converting to bring the scores level with 12 minutes remaining.
Both sides fought hard for the victory in the closing moments and a last-minute penalty in favour of Lichfield saw them opt for a lineout, which was subsequently stolen by Lisa Campbell and after a frantic piece of brave play in their in-goal area, the ball was eventually moved up field for the visitors to boot into touch and end a most exciting and entertaining game.
Worcester play host to Wasps next Sunday, with kick-off at 2.30pm at Weston’s Fields, Offerton Lane (opposite Sixways).