Berkswell That Ends Well

Tighter than the Virgin Mary. In a disjointed encounter, the three wise men Fred Howard, Mark Parry and Tom Lee rode into Berkslehem bearing gifts of tries, acrobatics and conversions to help secure the slightest of winning margins. 70 minutes of little real quality eventually gave way to a place kicking battle, as the old rivals tussled for a narrow lead that changed 4 times in the last 10 minutes.

Following a relatively straightforward couple of weeks, Sils knew that this would be a tough place to go, and bitter memories of the 24-12 loss two years ago still lingered. Sils started down the hill and knew they would have to settle fast, but Berkswell threw down the gauntlet early. Their game plan hadn’t changed from the last meeting between the sides, as they put the Sils scrum in reverse and made a mess of any attempts to play quick rugby. If the ball made it to the Berkswell backs it was booted long, turning Sils’ heads and either making them play back out or forcing them into a set piece scrap.

As Sils spluttered, Berkswell made the most of an early chance to utilise their heavily pack-orientated game to score. A penalty a few minutes later made the score 8-0. Sils kicked into gear, as their first real inroad into Berkswell territory led to a penalty, boldly kicked to the corner. Lineout special team delivered a solid platform for the driving maul, from which Fred Howard peeled blind to crash over. 8-5 at the break.

The second half only made Sils’ scrum struggle harder as they now had to push up the hill and, to make matters worse, the patchy first half had not taken much out of the big Berkswell pack. However, there was relief when early on Berkswell lost a man to the sin bin for a dangerous tackle, Sils capitalising with a penalty to level the scores at 8-8. From the subsequent restart, Berkswell kicked short and the onrushing winger used his momentum to regain the ball above the helpless Howard. In the phases that followed, the fly-half kicked cross-field for a lone winger to touch down. 13-8.

And then, with no warning whatsoever, a Christmas miracle occurred. Sils hit back and neared the Berkswell line. When the ball was popped up for the onrushing Mark John Parry and he veered towards the corner, it looked for all the world that there was no room at the inn. But he leapt and flew like an angel, and as the rest of his body disappeared into touch, a solitary arm reached inside the corner flag and dotted the ball down right in the corner. The Sils faithful erupted – Pazarus had scored the most inspired of tries, and Sils were level at 13 apiece.

Sils’ discipline let them down in the exchanges that followed, as they slipped again to a 19-13 deficit thanks to the Berkswell boot. But as another Berkswell player was binned, Sils took their chance with another catch-and-drive special that saw Fred Howard force his way over again. 20-19.

And that was just the start of the drama. Sils gave away another penalty, converted to make it 22-20, but Tom Lee responded with his own to haul Sils back in front, 23-22 with five to go. In the frantic final minutes, Sils’ poor discipline gave the home team yet another shot from 35 metres out which sailed over, and you would have been forgiven for thinking it was over. But in the mad panic of the dying seconds, Sils were awarded a penalty from about the same distance, dead in front, up the hill. As the helpless Berkswell watched on, Tom Lee stepped up and with one last swing of his right boot, snatched it. 26-25. “These are the games you remember” (Beech, 2016).

Sils finish for Christmas 13 wins from 15 in all competitions, and return in three weeks to face Earlsdon, whom they were beaten by in week two. On behalf of Beechy and all the lads, thanks for your support so far this season. COYS.