Saturday afternoon saw Ely Tigers travel across into Suffolk to play Thurston, again it was a much changed travelling squad of 18, with the return of Jacob Muncey, Chris McGarth, John Hunt and a senior debut for former Youth Team play player Dan Piper.
Tigers applied pressure early on with a bright opening quarter of a hour, with Ely having the first sight of the try tine, the move broke down giving the home side the ball, the penalty count for the home side was increasing, but tigers failed to take advantage, Ely were forced into an early change losing Michael Reeves with a head injury, bringing in Muncey, and it was the replacement that set up the opening try, a scrum under the post for Ely saw Muncey peel of the back, finding Nathan Brooks who wrestled his way over the try line, the conversion was missed as the ball crashed against the upright, the home side had the ideal chance to get on the scoreboard with a penalty, opting to kick, but the pull was pulled to the right of the upright, however, soon after another penalty, from almost the same position gave the home side another chance, this time they made no mistake as the ball sailed thru the middle of the posts, another penalty awarded against Ely gave the home side the chance to take the lead, again the kick was good as they took a point lead, as the first half wore on the home side were slowly finding their feet and getting a grip of the game and on the stroke of half time they crossed the try line, despite the efforts of the Ely back line, Thurston crossed the line next to the post, with the added conversion points they lead 13-5 at half time.
First chance of the second half to Ely, with a penalty with Joel Scott Pau opting to kick, closing the gap by 3 points as the kick was good, from the restart the home opened the gap again scoring another try, after Ely left a man spare out on the wing they cross the try line in the corner but was able to touch the ball down nearer the post, leaving an easier conversion, the home side down to 14 after, a high tackle resulted in a red card, from the resulting scrum Ely went over to score with Luke Turner crossing over to bring the score back to 13-20, leaving a difficult conversion out on the touchline , the kick fell short, as the game entered the last 5 minutes the Tigers down to 14 as Brooks was shown a card, as Ely looked to kick the ball away to gain yards the ball found the arms of the home side allowing them to apply more pressure as the game finished in a 20-13 defeat, which meant Tigers picked up a losing bonus point, with this Saturday a blank week for the league, Ely hope that the break will see some of the injured players come back to the fold.
Press release from Ely Tigers Rugby Club
Photo credit: Steve Wells
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