Silhillian Colts v Stafford Colts - 15.10.23

The Colts unbeaten away day start to the season came to an abrupt end at Silhillians.
The visitors looked half asleep as they found themselves two tries down within the first few minutes. They conceded an early penalty after being turned over and their opponents went through quick hands to score - but were unable to covert.
It went from bad to worse very quickly as from the kick off Silhillians ran the ball back at speed and this time taking the seven points leaving Stafford 12-0 behind with less than five minutes on the clock.
To their credit the Colts hit back shortly after when a long pass from Seb Conaghan found the versatile Dylan Shrehorn out wide. It was a brilliant run from the full back leaving defenders in his wake as he touched down under the posts handing Conaghan the easiest of conversions.
The home side found themselves down to 14 men and Stafford were not going to miss out on making their numbers count. Matt Turner went charging through and when he was stopped the drive was taken on by his fellow forwards - DJ Clements and Joben Corcoran - before second-row Charlie Kirby picked up and swatted away some covering tacklers to score between the posts. Conaghan added another easy two points to give the visitors the lead.
Another bit of individual brilliance from Jack Raine increased that lead. Ethan Hollins broke through and found the rapid centre who produced one of his trademark solo runs - giving Conaghan another comfortable conversion to increase the lead to 12-21.
The scoreline flattered Stafford, as much of the game had been played deep in their own half. And they could have stretched that lead after the impressive Shrehorn went on another strong run but was just stopped short of the line.
Silhillians kicked a penalty in the closing seconds to make it 15-21 at half time.
Apart from the individual brilliance of Shrehorn and Raine, the other standout performance was from their fellow junior colt, prop Ben Thomas, who put in some big hits along with strong carries. Stafford, who had until now been victorious on the road, would need more players to step up if they were to preserve that record.
Within a minute from the restart Stafford should have pulled further ahead but Conaghan missed what should have been a straightforward penalty from 25 metres in front of the posts.
It followed a period of stalemate with no side making any clear cut chances until a little kick through by the home team looked set for a try but for the alert Shrehorn getting back to cover.
On 47 minutes Silhillians regained the lead. They caught a difficult kick just inside their own half and ran it back. It was off-loaded and they found the path to the try line muchtoo easy going through several missed tackles.
In the 55th minute thehome side had a line out on the five metre line which Stafford looked to have turned over but somehow the ball found its way over the try line - and brough another unconverted try.
The Stafford defence came under a barrage of heavy shots but stood firm and with five minutes remaining had their last opportunity, with scrum half Sam Edwards putting in a long box kick which Conaghan chased and caught - but he was hunted down before he could play in winger Marley Thomas.
Any further score would have glossed over the cracks in the visitors’ performance and in the closing couple of minutes Silhillians again secured a lineout and this time finished with a converted try for a deserved win.

Coaches Comments:
We never showed up today. Some players were happy to just stroll along. There were some silly decisions, no urgency or fight in key areas, and we lost line outs and scrums that we should not be losing. We got back into the game with great individual moments - but as soon as they came out firing in the second half we folded.
We talked about complacency after some terrific results because even at training there were signs of us taking it easy. Let’s hope this has been a wake-up call - because if not we will find it very difficult in this division.
Of the positives, Dylan was excellent and showed he can play positions 9, 10 and 15. And Ben Thomas put in another powerful performance in the pack.