Sils Make Splash With Potty Scoreline in Bog Seat Thriller

11 tries, and a near faultless kicking performance from Ben Crowe that would have left Martin Boulter blinking in disbelief, saw off Nuneaton Old Edwardians and claimed a massive first-leg lead in the battle for the Bog Seat.

As expected, Nuneaton were big, physical, and played a tight game. They dominated the early scrums, and their driving maul was a threat. 21 of their 24 points came from mauls and forward carries from the base of the ruck. All three tries were impressively converted from out wide, as well as a penalty.

However, it quickly became clear that if Sils could expose Nuneaton in the wider areas, this would be their game. This, as well as some leaky away defence was to be the basis for a raft of tries. Ollie Trace, Jack Hobbs and Matt Lee finished off slick backs moves, with Hobbs in particular admitting it was “more my kind of game”. Tom Lee and Mark Parry also made the most of scattered defence in broken play to crash over from their usual range. Sefa Aukuso waltzed under the sticks just moments after a fracas that was unseen by the ref, to the home crowd’s delight. Olly Beech hit some thunderous lines from 13 to canter under on two occasions.

Sils even managed to squeeze out tries in the most unlikely of scenarios: a Nuneaton scrum in the clubhouse corner seemed certain to rumble over, but Tom Lee somehow got to the ball before the no.8 and Ben Crowe managed to clear, give chase, charge down and gather to run all the way in. Similarly, a Sils penalty kicked to the corner may have seemed an ambitious move, but a well-executed lineout led to a rampaging driving maul of their own from which Fred Howard crashed over. Surely that’s all of the tries? No – Matt Lee got another one.

Ben Crowe returned to kicking duty in style as he slotted 10 from 11 conversions.
There was still time for the usual nasties in this old rivalry. Tom Manise and Fred Howard both seeing yellow cards. A special mention to Joe Pick, who cemented a decent debut by acting as Team Doctor and re-locating a Nuneaton player’s finger.

After successive home games, Sils are back on the road next week as they travel to M2W strugglers Pinley, before a difficult run of games.