Stow V Silhillians U14 Match Report

Stow on the Wold vs Silhilians u14
Match Report 3rd November 2019

By Ian Hilton.
A very picturesque drive through the Cotswolds took the mighty Sils to Stow on the Wold RFC. Captain for the day George Maddy won the toss and Monty Adlington kicked the game into life. Almost immediately the Sils rush defence were penalised for being off side but despite Stow pushing Sils back in to their own half the Sils forwards turned the ball over and started to push Stow backwards. A lovely left right switch saw a brilliant passage of play with the ball moving from Ross at 9 to Monty at 10 to Tom Masterson then wide to George Hastings who scored under the posts. Duly converted by Monty for a 7-0 lead. Not five minutes later Sils were camped in the Stow half where Ross, Monty plus two big runs from Will Conduit and Tom Masterson created the space for George H to grab his second converted try to make it 14-0 Sils. Stow stuck manfully to the task in hand when some hard Sils rucking saw a powerful Ted Clarke cross the line to make it 19-0. Monty missing a difficult angle for the extra two.
20 minutes on the clock saw Charlie Anthony replace Ross at 9. Stow got the second half underway with Sills starting to concede a number of penalties in the ruck, off side, line out not straight, scrum penalties but despite being forced backwards a lovely combination from Charlie to Monty to a hard running Josh Litwinko pulled the whole of the Stow defence out of position. Josh timing his pass out wide perfectly to meet Brendan Colley who hit the gas to initially cross the white wash out wide to turn and eventually touch down right by the posts. Conversion from deadeye Monty made it 26-0. To be fair despite the emphatic score Stow stuck at it but following the re-start a change back to Ross at 9 saw a smart pass left to Monty who found George Maddy on the outside making it 31-0. Monty just going wide from a tight angle for the conversion. Some great forward work saw a repeat of the move only this time George Hastings took the wide pass to run in his 3rd making it 36-0 with Monty nailing a tight angle for 38-0. Stow started to look tired and despite a lovely hanging restart they were slow to the ball taken by Monty who shipped out wide on the left where Brendan Colley gleefully took the ball in his stride to score again. 43-0 soon became 45 following another Monty conversion. A spell of Sils penalties was broken with some great rucking from Harry Pemberton turning over the ball, Ross moving the ball wide left to Tom Masterson who drew his man whilst off loading to Brendan for another try, not converted to make it 50-0 to Sils.
Final 20 minutes saw Charlie back in at 9 and Monty replaced at 10. Change in the Sils forward line along with Stow putting their bigger forwards back on made the last 20 a real battle. Some great Sils defence saw the sides stuck in a stalemate only broken when the Stow outside centre slipped two tackles to run in under the posts for a hard won 5 points, duly converted to make it 50-7. Sils starting to concede penalties saw them back in the 22 when a missed Sils pass was snatched up off the ground for the Stow number 13 to score again. Conversion made it 50-14 to Sils. This seemed to spark Sils back in to life and with the bit between their teeth some great work from Ciaran Sullivan, Isaac Paris and James Kennedy saw Sils pushing Stow back. A pressure relieving Stow kick turned Sils but a quick take in his own half saw George Maddy run right through Stow to score Sils 9th try, unconverted to make it 55-14. The remaining 8 minutes was a real battle which eventually spilled over resulting in a yellow card to Stow and Sils. Match finished 55-14 to Sils. A great team performance with a combination of great defensive line speed, strong forward play and some well executed back play.