SILHILLIANS Saxons shined on a gloomy Saturday with a comprehensive 72-21 friendly victory at Nuneaton Old Edwardians.
With Nuneaton receiving the kick-off, pressure was immediately placed on the Sils with direct running and aggressive forward play.
Within five minutes Sils had conceded a try directly under the posts which was subsequently converted to make it 7-0.
After this set back, the Solihull side stepped up their game and piled the pressure onto Nuneaton with solid forward play, particularly from the Bullock brothers (Joe and Ollie) and then creative work in the backs by Ben and Sam Lowe which created the first try for the Saxons, right underneath the posts.
Sam then followed up on his older brothers try by converting, to level the scores at 7-7 after just seven minutes.
Sils continued this pressure, with some fantastic fluent rugby being played as the tries began to pour in.
Ben Lowe was next over the line with a converted try after a carving run from the halfway line before Joe Bullock then scored two with powerful runs from the centre of the pitch.
Both of them were converted.
Some great running from the younger Lowe brother, Sam, brought the score to 33-7 and then Luke Ettenfield-Nann scored a try to extend the lead.
Nuneaton began putting the pressure back on and the Sils were pinned underneath their posts but with a fantastic counter led by captain Garrick Rock, the Saxons won the ball back.
It was then cleared by the Sils fly half and chased by winger Ollie Powell who caught the ball and put on the afterburners to beat the Nuneaton full back for pace and score under the posts.
This was the final play of the half with Sils leading 47-7.
After the break Sols started strongly with Dan Walker scoring from a scintillating run while Sam Lowew touched down again to puts Sils out of sight.
The forwards then decided to get in on the scoring with Ettenfield-Nann keeping up with some great work from Andy Cunningham and Dom Marks to make it 62-7 with 66 minutes gone.
At this point, Nuneaton stepped up a gear and the Saxons began to lose concentration and discipline which resulted in a sin bin for Jim Roper and a number of penalties being given against Sils.
Nuneaton capitalised on the advantage and scored two tries, both of which were converted.
This visibly frustrated Sils who had defended well since the fifth minute of the game.
After this sustained pressure and frustration for Sils, they took the game back to Nuneaton and finished the game off.
The ever present Paul Hollier ran the length of the pitch before being tackled just shy of the try line and offloading to Ben Lowe, allowing him to complete his hat-trick.
This was quickly followed by Ettenfield-Nann crashing over the line for his hat-trick to complete the scoring.
