Old Sillhillians 22, Evesham 10pts

EVESHAM travelled to Solihull on Saturday for their first league encounter with last year's promoted side.

Apparently, promotion was well deserved as the club notched up another league win against a slow starting Eve-sham.

Whether it was travel lag and a home advantage that made the difference is difficult to say but it is true that the home side were prepared to hit the floor running and in doing so managed to keep the visitors from finding a pace to settle to.

Old Sills took the game to Evesham from the opening whistle linking forwards with backs to fire a succession of fast moving attacks at the visitors' defence.

With tacklers sucked in, gaps inevitably appeared in the Evesham defence and Old Sills quickly moved the ball wide to exploit the space. Finally, an overlap enabled the right winger to round his man and score under the posts for a converted try.

This early pressure worked a huge advantage to the home side as Evesham struggled to settle and impose their presence on the match. This pattern of play dominated the first half seeing two more home tries added to the score.

At times, Evesham looked to settle and cause the home side some disruption and fly-half Chris Evis had a close race following his own chip and chase only narrowly being beaten to the ball.

Unfortunately for Evesham the last play of the first half saw the home side score a rather disputable try when even the spectators could judge a forward pass and Evesham found themselves 17-0 down.

The break seemed to be beneficial as it enabled Evesham to collect regroup after the Old Sills' onslaught.

Following the restart Evesham managed gained more control of the game setting the pace of play to their advantage. Scrum-maging remained an even affair with both packs winning their own ball. However, Evesham maintained their dominance in the line-out with the second row pair of Nuttell and Webb winning a high percentage of ball.

From secure possession in the home side's half, Evesham used their backs to great effect to score the try of the match.

The ball was spun through the centre three quarters for full-back Doug Payne to run on to at pace dividing the Old Sills defence. Payne drew his man and passed to left winger Chris Oreschnick who then beat his opposite number to finish off an excellent team effort.

Sills responded positively and turned the pressure back on Evesham, this time with the blindside flanker peeling from a five-metre scrum to dive in for their final score.

The visitors kept their discipline and came back to score the final points. Scrum-half Gary Diston took the ball on from a set penalty move. Re-cycling the ball and spinning wide enabled the attack to gain territory with replacement full-back Tom Archer being held up just short of the try line. Prop forward Andrew Sheward took his opportunity to power over.

Evesham's efforts were all too late as the final whistle gave Old Sillhillians another win.

This Saturday, Evesham enter the pool for a late fixture due to Oxford Harlequins' cup match.