Powerful Droitwich too strong for Old Silhillians

Monday 8th February 2010

Droitwich took a long time to get out of first gear on Saturday, but when they did they had far too much power for Solihull side Silhillians at the Memorial Ground.

In excellent conditions, both teams seemed hesitant and made no real headway with their attacks. Although the early exchanges belonged to the visitors, the Droitwich defence were solid with Nick Godfrey and James Davies putting in some effective tackling.

Droitwich did get into their stride and an intelligent kick by the ever-lively Steve Poke saw Mark Strutt go clear before he was well tackled. Matt Blackmore threw a clever pass to release Simon Pearce but the support was slow and unfortunately the attack came to nothing. A five yard scrum near the Sill’s line saw Captain Phil Horton drive for the line as well as Godfrey go clear, but the home side was guilty of over elaboration and were penalised.

Droitwich did raise their work rate which saw the visitors infringe but Chris Hooper was just wide with two long range penalty efforts. As the first half neared its end still scoreless, a break by Poke found Hooper in support for a neat dummy before powering over to open the scoring and bring a close to an error strewn half.

The half time interval seemed to do Droitwich some good as they came out firing on all cylinders. Matt Jupp and Alex Saddington were both very busy in the loose and Dean Goddard made his weight advantage tell in the tight.

A good run by Horton set up the home side near the Sill’s line for prop forward Dylan Jones to pick up and power over from short range. Young Bobby Scott-Walker added the tricky conversion.

There was a sense of déjà vu about the next try as, again Jones picked up and thundered over from short range for his second of the afternoon.

Droitwich could have added more but a combination of wrong options and poor handling saw them kept at bay. The visitors did launch some attacks of their own but solid defence by Andy Manns and James Shewell kept the line intact.

As the game came to an end another attack saw Hooper set Droitwich up with an attacking position in the corner.  Godfrey drove for the line to find Davies in support to dive over to give the home side a comprehensive victory. Final score: Droitwich 22 - Silhillians 0.

It must be said that although Droitwich were not at their best, they were able to score four good tries and defend their line comfortably. This leaves the Spa side second in the table with a crucial game against leaders Worcester Warriors next week.

Captain Phil Horton summed up the game:  “We made a lot of errors today, especially in the first half, but we had the presence of mind to pick ourselves up and carry on working.”

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