Magnificent Mansfield make it six wins out of six with 73-0 demolition of Sileby Town

Mansfield entered this game with high expectations after a dominant opening to the season.

The combination of youth and experience has, so far, proved to be an excellent pairing and that was further demonstrated on Saturday with another commanding performance.

Sadly, the flag was once again flying at half mast as the club said its goodbyes to former player Keith Chapman, who had passed away.

Head Coach Wayne Robinson was, unsurprisingly, very pleased with his team, saying: “I think that’s the culmination of a lot of hard work. I’m very proud.”

The home team started off pretty much as they finished in their last home game with two tries in the opening two minutes.

The first came from Steven Davison who was making a welcome return to the first team and the second from birthday boy Conway Evans. Both were converted by Taran Elms and Mansfield were 14-0 up in less than 10 minutes.

The third try came from a mistake by the visitors. Both sides racked up plenty of penalties throughout the game and it was from a kick to touch that Emmanuel Ogunode threw out a, perhaps speculative, arm to keep the ball in play.

While the first movement may have been speculative, Ogunode managed to juggle and regather the ball quite spectacularly, to the point that nobody else quite believed what had happened.

His reaction and speed saw him cover 55m to score almost unopposed to ignite the home crowd. Another conversion saw the score increase to 21 points.

Another two tries were scored before half-time, both coming from the power of the forwards.

The whole pack deserves plaudits for their relentlessness in both attack and defence.

First, a lineout catch and drive from one of the numerous aforementioned penalties saw Phil Pogmore, a nuisance around the park any time he plays, drive through the bodies to register the bonus point try, converted again by Elms.

Then, Eddy Simmons powered his way through numerous tackles to set up a platform for Danny Spencer to burrow his way to the try line.

Another conversion saw the half-time score read 28-0 to Mansfield.

It was this exemplary display with the boot, and his general marshalling of the game, that saw Elms pick up the Matchday Sponsors The Mansfield Vets Legends’ Player of the Match award.

Sileby dominated the scrum for large portions of the game, their lineout worked well and they really pushed the home team, forcing a number of errors that would derail the Blue-and-Whites' attacks.

In fact, the home defence was probably the most organised and ferocious it had been in many a week and this was largely because of the threat posed by Sileby.

Never short of attacking options they were just unable to convert the opportunities into points. A plethora of penalties conceded also didn’t help their cause. But have no doubt, this was not plain sailing for the home team, despite the score.

Ogunode scored almost immediately as the home team gathered the restart and again put phases into action.

It was not an easy try, Sileby’s aforementioned tenaciousness meaning Ogunode had to pounce when the ruck had become a mess of bodies and the ball squirted loose.

The conversion was missed, the first of only two all game, an impressive statistic, but the score was 40-0.

Further tries continued to come in, first from Lewis Cowlishaw who sniped around the fringes all afternoon.

This time picking up from a 5m scrum and weaving through defenders to score.

Davison picked up a second after another 5m scrum saw Mansfield get the ball out as quickly as possible under immense pressure.

The three remaining tries all had some personal flair to them.

First, Michael Wallis received the ball just inside the visitors’ half and proceeded to show a clean pair of heels to finish off a brilliant piece of play.

Zane Chiappetta, not to be outdone by a forward, followed shortly after with his own mazy run to keep his tally ticking over and Kyan Johnson finished off the afternoon’s tries with a powerful surge from an attacking scrum. Two conversions saw the final score read 73-0.

A confident performance from a Mansfield team that continues to build with each new performance. The scoreline was not Sileby’s friend, but they can take many positives away from this game.

Their scrum in particular was a constant threat and really disrupted what was a sizeable Mansfield pack.

With some players missing and some returning there was always the possibility it would disrupt the flow created over the last five games but that didn’t happen.

There is a depth to this squad that means a sense of cohesion and consistency can be kept.

This weekend, Mansfield travel to Nottingham Casuals. You can follow the action on Twitter @Mansfieldrugby.