Sils Saxons started the game strong with big carries and patterns making life hard for the Stratford defence. However, due to a mixture of mistakes, poor discipline and some good defence from Stratford the white-wash was seeming hard to crack.

After a head clash caused Jack Brown to go off injured with 20 minutes left of the first half. this left the Saxons down to 14 players for the rest of the game. On paper this sounds like it should have been game over and Stratford to take control.

However, the Saxons heart was never going to let this happen and time and time again we applied the pressure. This pressure produced a break-through. A scrum just off the Stratford 5m line. Skipper Joe Berry picked from the base at No 8, with a powerful carry, managed to get over the line. Conversion missed but this put Saxons 0-5 up.

Towards the end of the first half saw pressure coming back at the Saxons. With Stratford attacking the try line and a big carry from one of their boys looked certain to even the score until up popped Harrison with a monster of a hit to keep the score the same at the end of the first half.

Silhillians Saxons 5 – Stratford 2nds 0

At the start of the second half poor discipline from Saxons gave Stratford a foot hold and some decent pressure, however some great solid defence enabled the Saxons to keep Stratford at bay.

Possession and pressure kept changing hands with neither team capitalising on their efforts.

A yellow card to Saxons centre put the boys down to 13 vs 15. Once again you would think this would have causes problems for the Saxons, but some fantastic drift defence and strong carries kept Stratford struggling to get any momentum. The two-man advantage didn't last long as a deliberate knock on saw Stratford also have a player in the bin.
A lineout on the Stratford 5m saw the Saxons go up at the front and Matt Saunders capitalise on a gap in the defensive line to flop over for Saxons second score of the day.

Almost straight from the resulting kick off saw Saxons break away and some fantastic link up play and fast recycling at the breakdown saw George Collins get over for the Saxons third try of the day.

The fourth try came from a scrappy lineout on the halfway with Ollie cleaning the mess up and a strong carry to get Saxons back on the front foot. A quick change of attack direction saw Hassan and Ben link up to break the line and some superb support continued the break. Joe Settle came so close to the line but popped the ball off the floor which then was moved on to Harrison who got over for a well-deserved try and to take the game to 0-20 to Saxons with not long left.

Stratford came back from this latest score proving they didn't want to be white-washed. Some prolong pressure against a tired 14-man Saxons team finally saw Stratford get over the line right at the death to end the game 5-20.

Silhillians Saxons 20 – Stratford 2nds 5

PotD: Harrison Frank
DotD: Ollie Bullock