RUGBY UNION: SILHILLIANS received an early Christmas present on Saturday as they defeated Southam in what could’ve been a troublesome away fixture.
The Sils pack dominated the scrum all day with efforts from the front five standing out – most notably props Mark Parry and Lewis White dominated their opposite numbers to earn Sils multiple penalties.
Nick Elliot was the first man to cause Southam problems when he broke through the centre of the field to offload Ben Crowe, who neatly skipped past the final defender to score under the posts.
The pressure from Sils led to the Southam fly half being sinbinned, it was then that the floodgates opened.
A break down the blindside from skipper Tom Lee fed Ollie Trace, who crossed the whitewash to bag Sils’ second try.
A quick change on the half hour mark saw the reintroduction of Steve Hall.
Hall made an immediate impact when scoring with his first touch of the game, earning Silhillians their third try.
In the run up to the half time, rare Southam pressure led to a score in the club house corner – much to the delight of the spirited home fans.
The score ended 5-17 at the end of the first half.
A Tom Lee penalty shortly after the break briefly settled Sils’ nerves, only for them to get rattled again with a Southam breakaway try after some sloppy defence.
Hopes of a comeback were quashed though when flanker Ronan Jones forced his way over following a wayward lineout in the Southam 22.
The best play of the day followed when Harry Pick fed Ollie Trace with support from Chidi Nzekwe.
Ben Crowe eventually touched down.
Sils bagged another two late consolation tries, final score 20-32.
Another strong away win to make it five from five for the Copt Heath outfit, who host their final game of 2017 at home to Barkers Butts this Saturday.
