Sat 21 Mar 2026, 15:00
Stratford 24-39 Old Silhillians
This weekend Stratford welcomed Old Silhillians (Sils) to Pearcecroft, knowing that they’d been scoring a lot of tries lately, and defence would be key. Sadly, Stratford suffered two early setbacks with Sils getting the scoreboard rolling, opting for three points from a penalty at a breakdown and then managing to spread the ball wide around the edge of the defence to score to the left of the posts. The sun was out for what could be a glorious day of running rugby, hopefully for Stratford as well!
From the restart, Stratford went back down the other end after re-gathering the kick, thanks to the returning Jamie Jones leaping high in the air to tap the ball back, and then began working the phases in field. A well-timed wide pass saw them break the 22 before the ball was played coast-to-coast in both directions stretching the defence and pinning Sils back on their own line. The ball was then played left, through the hands of prop Michael Dawes to fly half Gwil Davis who, noticing forwards in the line, shaped to spread the ball wide. With the dummy sold, he arched round through the gap and towards the posts giving Stratford kicker Dan Whitby a simple conversion. Stratford were back in it, 7-10.
Gathering the next restart, Stratford went quickly down the pitch and thanks to quick offloads after making yards by Jonny Smith, Jo Cook and Dan Allison found them in the 22 once more. Though turned over on this occasion, Stratford kept the play in the Sils half returning clearing kicks but ultimately were unable to break the try line. Following this, Sils worked their way into the Stratford 22, they were able to attack in field from a lineout near the try line and opted once again to take three points when Stratford were penalised in front of the posts, 7-13.
Stratford did hit back next though, piling on the pressure and earning a penalty to kick to the left corner where they ran a move from the back of a lineout working across the pitch to the right, keeping the Sils defence tight to the ruck due to the running power of the Stratford forwards and snipes of scrum-half Jake Lowe. Next, they spread the ball left starting with an out the back by prop Tom Stanley to Davis and onto Whitby who went inside his man and used his right hand to pop the ball out to full-back Cook. Cook placed the ball down in the corner as part of what looked like quite a malicious tackle , the defender slamming Cook’s upper back and head into the hard ground, though nothing more than the try was awarded/done by the referee. With the conversion sailing wide, it was now 12-13.
Sadly, 30 minutes in Stratford conceded another try, with a penalty giving Sils a 5 m lineout, their pack formed a solid maul and drove over the try line to score. This penalty a result of the first of the game’s sour incidents where players from both sides took exception to something they saw. Sils scored again after they made their way to Stratford’s try line and forced a penalty when scrum-half Lowe was trying to clear from behind the ruck. They tapped and went quickly to the right eventually going in the by the corner flag. Two quickfire tries and they were 12-25 up.
There was time for more action before half-time though, a Sils clearing kick failed to go out and winger Armin Tofighi returned the ball to the halfway line before being stopped. Awarded a penalty, Stratford kicked back into the Sils 22 and started once again. Spreading the ball wide left from the lineout, with a loop by Davis into and around Nathan Geekie and a wide ball out to back row Allison who made it almost to the try line before being brought down. Short balls out from the ruck to props Zak Amond and Stanley saw Stratford come close twice before being awarded another penalty. Taking a quick tap, Lowe risked the good field position but was able to sneak the ball down to the white line between two Sils players.
With half-time coming straight after Whitby’s failed conversion, the scoreboard read 17-25 as the game got going again. Now attacking towards Loxley Road, Stratford launched a play right off a solid scrum, and then worked back to the left, with a ball out of the back to Davis then the ball going to ground as the Sils player knocked it out of his hands. With the referee not spotting the knock-on, Sils pounced, snatching the ball from the floor and popping to their full-back to run the 40 m in under the posts for an easy seven pointer, 17-32.
To make matters worse, only a minute later a similar thing happened. With Sils sending the ball left in their own half, a pass out to the 13 was put back inside and knocked forward into the arms of a Sils man, offside-having tracked the play across the pitch-who caught it to run straight towards full-back Cook. He fixed him and popped inside to his teammate to go under the sticks and another simple conversion made it 17-39 and left the Stratford players, not to mention supporters, outraged by the ref missing a clear knock-on/offside. He put the whistle to his lips but then proceeded to follow the Sils players to award the try. Stratford captain Smith’s protests were not enough to change the score, irrelevant of what had happened.
Stratford did all they could, dug in and got back to work driving deep into the Sils half. Having kept the pressure on, things turned nasty at the ruck, and the referee binned a Sils prop and Stratford scrum-half Lowe. This forced the introduction from Stratford of Dave Pritchard to cover scrum-half, joining fellow substitute Angus Wightman on the pitch, now returned from Australia. With Stratford having kicked to the corner, and won the lineout to drive it forward, the referee blew the whistle and decided to bin prop Stanley, but no one from Sils on this occasion bizarrely despite antics from both sets of forwards.
Surprisingly with Sils having 14, and Stratford only 13 men for around 7-8 minutes, there were no tries added in this period with both defences thwarting short periods of attacking pressure. A particular highlight defensively was Wightman latching onto the ball and turning it over for Stratford to clear to touch from the try line right in front of his own posts. Despite the extra man, Sils backs weren’t fully testing Stratford’s backs as they were able to drift across and communicated well to stop any line breaks. When Sils tried kicking the ball in behind, on one memorable occasion Pritchard used his vast experience to gather the ball and stay on his feet long enough for Stratford’s retreating defence to secure the ruck.
Most of the second half having disappeared to scrums and penalty kicks for lineouts, Stratford kept working hard to push for the fourth try to get the crucial bonus point for the league table. Presented with an opportunity from a Sil’s penalty, Stanley threw into the lineout on the Sils 22, Stratford’s left, and the forwards kept it tight at first moving a couple of metres forward. Next Lowe spread the ball to Davis, and he across to Andy Oliver coming into the line from the wing to step right and handoff the left defender before finding Whitby on another tight line to go in behind the right defender.
With Stratford now 2 m short of the line, just past the right post the ball was sent right to Davis running hard at line and, although his initial momentum was stopped, Stratford rallied around him and moved him forward with the ball before substitute Charlie Billings was able to peel off the side and dive over the line away from the melee to score his first Stratford senior try. Whitby added the extras to leave the scoreboard reading 24-39.
Stratford were left very aggrieved knowing those two runaway tries in the second half were 14 of the 15-point difference in the scores. Stratford’s Man of the Match went to Zak Amond having worked hard for the full 80 covering multiple positions across the front five in the absence of those yellow carded and continuing his consistency of performances over the last few months.
Stratford XV: 1. Michael Dawes* 2. James Paterson* 3. Tom Stanley* 4. Sam James* 5. Zak Amond* 6. Dan Allison* 7. Jamie Jones* 8. Jonny Smith* (C) 9. Jake Lowe 10. Gwil Davis* 11. poster 12. Nathan Geekie (VC) 13. Dan Whitby 14. Armin Tofighi* 15. Jo Cook* 16. Angus Wightman 17. David Pritchard* 18. Charlie Billings*
*Denotes product of Stratford minis and juniors
