Stafford Colts v Silhillians Colts - 4.2.24

The colts made a winning return to league action as they blew Silhillians away to edge closer to a second place finish.
It was sweet revenge for Stafford who had come off second best in the away fixture last October.
Scrum-half Sam Edwards got the home side off to a flyer with less than five minutes on the clock when his intelligent pick and go from a ruck saw him cut a hole in the visitors’ defence - with Dylan Shrehorn adding the extra two points.
Stafford knew they were in a game as Silhillians mounted a sustained period of pressure and there could be no complaints when they hit back to make it 7-5 after 15 minutes.
The colts went close on a couple of occasions - Henry Perks just being stopped short of the line - before Jack Raine took a fizzing pass from Seb Conaghan and side stepped his way through covering defenders to increase the lead. Shrehorn again converting.
But it appeared to be déjà vu as the visitors again applied pressure on the Stafford line before going over to reduce the deficit.
In the last play of the half Finn Osmant went on a typical powerful run through the centre and timed a perfect pass for Shrehorn to touch down and send Stafford into the break 19-10 up.
It was great to see the influential Osmant in the starting line up after missing several matches with an ankle injury - and the home side also welcomed Charlie Collier back to the club, which immediately added power to the front row.
Although leading after the opening 35 minutes the home side would have been wary of the number of times they were losing the ball when it went to ground and being turned over in the ruck by a battling Silhillians. Those indiscretions had scuppered several dangerous attacks - mostly led by strong carries from Kayden Robinson.
Stafford may have thought it was over seconds after the restart when Conaghan and Osmant carried out a looped training ground move to put the fly half away - and he sliced through a couple of defenders to give the home side a 14 points lead.
That lead was increased when Shrehorn took three points from a penalty. The infringement also saw the visitors going down to 14 men after some unnecessary comments to the referee.
That set back seemed to galvanise Silhillians who bagged two tries in a five minute burst. Stafford again were the authors of their own problems as their opponents took advantage of some needless penalties and set up what could well have led to a nervy final quarter.
But the visitors’ brief renaissance was short lived with Osmant grabbing a well deserved try after first Olly Croft, and then Farai Munjodzi, had gone close. Shrehorn converted and this stretched the lead to 34-20.
Silhillians heads were now dropping and Charlie Kirby took advantage running a perfect line to go over from just over five metres out without an opponent laying a glove on him. Minutes later the ball was shipped wide with Raine pulling the defence apart to set up his fellow junior colt, Ellis Millard. The winger still had plenty to do but his electric pace took him past the defenders from 20 metres out to complete the scoring.
Even a late yellow card for an off the ball incident for Munjodzi could not take the shine off an impressive performance which gave the colts’ second-placed aspirations a much needed shot in the arm.

Coach’s Comments:
We played some fantastic rugby at times. We talked about distributing the ball quickly to the wings and today it worked really well with some great attacking play. We were strong in our set pieces and the scoreline does not reflect how tough a side Silhillians were today but overall our game management was good.
In the first half we were bossed at the break downs and lost a lot of ball when going to ground. This gave them opportunities to get back into the match - and is something we must work on.
Sam Edwards had a great game -and his clever box kicking relieved the pressure despite a difficult wind to contend with. And having Charlie Collier back is a boost and he had a solid performance in and out of set pieces. The junior colts, Farai Munjodzi, Ashton Guy and Freddie Sutton also stood out against strong opponents.