Old Silhillians 36, Pershore 19.

PERSHORE’S dreadful away form continued when they lost to a well-drilled Old Silhillians in their latest Midlands Two West (South) clash.

From the whistle, Pershore bristled with intent, running from their own 22 and playing enterprising rugby, but ultimatly the last pass was missed, dropped or the wrong option taken.

Sils dominated territory in the first 30 minutes but, 10 minutes before half-time, all the visitors could muster was a 3-0 lead with a penalty success.

However, all of a sudden there were two killer blows.

Firstly, a kick ahead was run back at Pershore, a ruck in the 22 gave Sils options and a simple overlap was exploited.

Secondly, on the stroke of half-time a poor line-out was not cleaned up and Sils swarmed over the ball and quickly crashed over. Both tries were converted to make it 17-0 at half-time.

Pershore fought back in the second-half but, from an attacking position, turn-over ball was sped wide and Sils increased their lead.

With an uphill task ahead, Pershore played to their strengths, which is keeping the ball in hand and were rewarded when Marcus Whyte scored after some fine approach play from the forwards. Dolphin converted.

With confidence on the up, again the visitors produced some fine approach play, with some great off-loads taken at pace, which enabled Will Woodhouse to score in the corner. The conversion was missed.

Rather than keeping the ball in hand, Pershore got into bad old habits and began to kick hard-earned possession away.

In doing so they gave Sils the chance to use their skilful backs to good effect who, in turn, punished Pershore by scoring two converted tries.

With time running out, Pershore reduced the arrears again when prolific scoring second row Whyte crashed over to complete his brace. Dolphin converted.

On the final whistle, Sils spread the ball wide and a clever inside pass to their free-running full-back saw him complete the day’s scoring to seal a fine victory for the hosts.

This away defeat sees Pershore go to seventh in the table on 16 points, with five defeats from their first eight games.

Pershore have no game on Saturday but entertain Earlsdon at Piddle Park in their next league clash on Saturday, December 4 (ko 2.15pm).