Silhillians run league leaders Droitwich close in new year's opener - The Solihull Observer

Silhillians run league leaders Droitwich close in new year's opener

Solihull Editorial 11th Jan, 2018   0

RUGBY UNION: SILHILLIANS missed a chance to strengthen their midtable position in the Midlands 2 South (West) Division after losing to table topping Droitwich.

Droitwich made it 12 wins out of 12, though Sils made them work hard for the points in a closely fought contest.

Boggy conditions made Sils’ fast and fluent style of play tricky to execute.

Droitwich made the most of their positive start to the game when the home side’s scrum half set-up the hooker for Droitwich’s first try on five minutes.




Sils’ slow start continued as Droitwich got their second try just five minutes later.

The disruptive start continued as Sils hooker Fred Howard suffered from a knock and was forced off on 13 minutes.


Tim Trace coming on as an ample replacement and performed well as Howard’s stand-in at hooker.

A controlled scrum on 15 minutes set the platform for the backline to get their first clear attacking opportunity.

A bounce pass from full back Ben Crowe fed Dan Walker the ball, who dodged and offloaded the ball to Harry Pick who sprinted across the line to register Sils’ first try.

A good conversion from Tom Lee got Sils closer to being back in the game.

From then on, Sils applied the majority of the pressure for the remainder of the half until Ronan Jones was sin binned on the stroke of half time for what looked like a deliberate knock-on.

With the pressure mounting on the Sils’ lesser numbered pack, Droitwich’s scrum disrupted Sils to lose the ball at the base and see the onrushing Droitwich back row and scrum half producing a score in the final play of the half.

At 20-7, Sils had a mountain to climb.

Though the visitors started the second half better, Droitwich ultimately held onto their lead.

Matt Lee and James Arney teamed up well in midfield, allowing Harry Pick to register a try and bring Sils back into the game.

Hope was dashed though when the home side’s large pack croshed the whitewash to make it 27-14.

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