The Tigers finally got their 2026 campaign underway with a league fixture away at Ipswich, with both sides looking for valuable points to climb the table.
The home side started brightly, scoring inside the opening five minutes with an unconverted try to take an early 5–0 lead. Ipswich soon doubled their advantage with another unconverted try in the corner, before a third score shortly after, this time converted, pushed the home side 17–0 ahead.
Ely responded well. Jake Alsop broke free before John Surbey finished the move, with Alsop adding the conversion to reduce the deficit. Momentum continued to swing as Luke Turner then ran in unchallenged under the posts, again converted by Alsop, bringing the score back to 17–14 after 22 minutes.
Ipswich regrouped and exploited space down the left hand side, stretching the lead with a series of tries, both converted and unconverted, to take a commanding 36–14 advantage into the half time break.
The hosts struck early in the second half, scoring from a scrum deep in the Tigers half, breaking blindside with the conversion added. As the fog rolled in, the remainder of the game became scrappy with neither side able to fully take control.
Ipswich edged towards the 50 point mark late on, crossing for a final converted try to seal the match, with the game finishing 50–14 to the home side.
Try scorer: Luke Turner
📸 Photo credit: Steve Wells (@rugby__tog)
Ely Tigers RFC
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