A change to the starting 15 for Ely, due to unavailability, which also saw players playing out of position.
The home side made a bright start, applying pressure on the Ely back line, Tigers held firm to win a scrum on their back line, the ball went back giving Tigers a chance to kick to touch and to clear their lines, but a poor clearance gave the ball directly back to the home side to apply more pressure, a penalty to Ely again gave them the chance to clear, which they did.
Against the run of play it was Tigers that put the first points on the board, Tigers break from a line out, sitting up an attack, the referee awarded a penalty to Ely in front of the posts, Jake Alsop stepped up to give Ely a 3-0 lead, the lead didn’t last long as the home side hit back directly from the restart, finding the gaps in the Tigers defence to score, with the conversion added, the lead was quickly stretched with a second try in the corner, the conversion was missed, with the ball hitting the post.
Tigers looked stretched at the back with the home side adding another try to extend their lead to 17-3, as the half time break approached Tigers get their first try on the board, as Matt McCarthy crossed the line, with Alsop adding the conversion to close the gap to 17-10 at the break.
The second half started with Ely drawing level, as Jake Alsop steals the ball inside the West’s half, and crosses the try line, Alsop also added the extra points to put the scores level.
From the restart, West break down the right hand side, despite tigers hold out, West pass the ball out left to find the space and spare numbers to score, the conversion was missed, the home side once again add to their lead, after another penalty against Ely, the home side cross the line under the posts, the extra points added
The home side edged the game since extending their lead, pushing the Tigers scrum back a number of times, it was Tigers that posted the next points on the board, after a kick forward by West was chased down, John Surbey, crosses over on the wing to score a try on his debut, Alsop was unable to add the extra points as the game closed out with a 29-22 loss for the Tigers,
The loss sees Ely in 4th place in the league, as they look forward to hosting second placed side Wymondham (30/9)
Press release from Ely Tigers Rugby Club
Photo credit: Steve Wells
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