Rugby Union
Spa suffer a setback at Silhillians

Silhillians 22 Leamington 14

LEAMINGTON’S impressive run of four successive Midlands Two West (South) victories came to an end at Silhillians on Saturday

Spa suffered a blow before kick-off when influential skipper Nick Maxwell injured his arm in the pre-match warm up. Although able to start the game, his stay only lasted 15 minutes.

A quick reshuffle saw the introduction of rock Terry Curran at prop with Danny Phillips reverting to hooker.

Spa began with some high tempo attacking play, involving strong running from Alex Sharman from the base of the scrum and plenty of invention from the back line.

In one of these early forays, Alex Carroll and Nathan Earland exchanged quick passes, before the latter found wing Richard Staff with a delightful give inside which almost opened up the home defence.

Spa created another top quality opening when lock Simon Harry and Darren Fowler punched a hole in the Sils defence and set up centre Tom Daplyn whose clever break brought Carroll into play with a direct run up the wing only for him to see his superbly timed pass to Staff adjudged forward.

The departure of Maxwell disrupted Spa’s continuity and some indiscipline allowed Sils to take the lead with a penalty to which they quickly added a fine try..

Spa were dealt another body blow when Darren Fowler sustained a triple fracture to his lower leg and the game was held up for several minutes.

This further disruption meant Spa had lost their early initiative and, shortly before the break, Sils went over for another converted try for a 17-0 half time lead.

Spa were under the cosh at the start of second half but Simon Harry and Craig Smith produced some robust tackling, while excellent support from the front row trio of Gareth Eastham, Curran and Phillips kept the visitors in the game.

This determination paid dividends as Alex Sharman led a counter charge at the home defence that cut a path for Northover to exploit and ghost in for a fine try. The young scrum-half then delivered a magical kick from the flanks to bring Spa back into contention.

Carroll put in some searching line kicks with Staff and Simon Dudley doing plenty of unselfish chasing, while Daplyn kept the Sils defence on their toes with some clever running.

As the game entered the final quarter, Spa were continuing to press and forced Sils into conceding a penalty that was certainly within the range of Northover’s golden boot.

However, they opted for a line-out, near Sils line, which Simon Harry claimed. The Spa pack engineered a formidable drive, cleverly guided by Curran and Eastham, and as the try line beckoned, Sharman took the ball and crashed over.

Northover’s boot claimed the extras with a fine conversion from wide out.

It cut the deficit to three points but Sils weathered the storm and clinched victory with a last-gasp, unconverted try.

Leamington return to league duty on Saturday, January 28 with a home fixture against Upton-on-Severn.