Sils take Harborough to Market

Having secured a bye in the first round of the RFU Intermediate Cup, Sils began their campaign with a solid, well-negotiated home win over Midlands 2 East (South) side Market Harborough. Five tries – including a memorable hat-trick from Tom Lee – and some impressive defence were enough to progress comfortably to round 3.

Just like at Malvern the week before, Sils began well. An early turnover from Tim Trace fed Mark Parry, who made yards before passing inside to Tom Lee who crashed over for the first score on 7 minutes. Harry Law’s conversion was missed.

Just 12 minutes later, Sils were back over the whitewash. Good forward momentum led to another opportunity for Tom Lee, forcing his way between opposition bodies for his second with only a quarter of the game gone. The conversion was missed from a similar position.

Kiwi import Sefa Aukuso was the first from a strong Sils bench to enter the fray, rotating on for Nick Elliot after 26 minutes. His introduction helped Sils in what was a physical battle up front all afternoon, as Harborough made life difficult in the ruck and maul.

Sils’ solid defence from the Malvern encounter was evident again as they saw off a Harborough attack in the clubhouse corner. However, a speculative kick downfield was knocked on and a scoring opportunity gifted to the away side. They went over in the corner from the resulting scrum for what were to be their only points of the match.

Sils were wary of a resurgence going into the second half, but put any doubts behind them quickly as Harry Pick bundled over in the corner following a solid Sils scrum, clean 8 pick from Peter Nichols and offload by Tom Lee down the blind side.

A raft of changes followed the score, as Sils looked to freshen things up. Matt Lee replaced Harry Law and Nick Elliot re-entered in place of James ‘Jimmer’ Hibbard. Ollie Trace also replaced Ben Crowe and made a positive impact with some impressive line breaks from the set piece.

With the score at a precarious 15-5, Sils found themselves in a position they could typically have bottled in past seasons. However, the team’s growing belief and game management shone through in the final quarter. Another defensive test was passed when a penalty was conceded and kicked to the corner.

Minutes later, Sils found themselves at the other end, and Stu Clarke was unfortunate as he picked and went under the posts, maneuvering brilliantly to reach out and dot the ball on the line. It wasn’t seen by the ref, capping off a difficult couple of weeks for Stu.

Sils rallied again and a perfectly executed scrum strike move saw that man again Tom Lee through a gap to score Sils’ fourth try and complete Tom’s hatrick.

With victory looking increasingly likely, Jack Hobbs showed great resolve by rounding off the win by finishing a wide move under the posts, despite earlier claiming it “wasn’t his kind of game”. Harry Pick converted. There was just time for a red card for Market Harborough following a kick on Tim Trace, but this was only a blemish on the away side’s otherwise spirited performance.

Sils return to league action next week, entertaining Nuneaton Old Edwardians at Copt Heath as they look to make it 6 from 7 in all competitions.