Ely Tigers welcome unbeaten league leaders, Saffron Walden, to the Cambridge Commodities Park on Saturday afternoon.
The game started evenly but it was the visitors that troubled the scoreboard first, from a Walden line out, forcing Ely back, the ball breaks out wide finding a gap in front of the posts to score unchallenged, with the conversion added Walden lead 7-0, that was the real chance of the half as it became a stop/start game.
Ely went down to 14 men as Grant Storey was shown a yellow card, but during that 10 minutes, the home side defence stood firm. As half time approached, there was no further score.
Ten minutes into the second half, Walden scored their second try, after camping out in the Ely half, Walden push over from the number 8 at the rear of the scrum to score as the scrum dominated all afternoon, the conversion was added as the score stood at 14 – 0, it was then the visitors time to go down to 14, during this time Walden had the best clear cut chance of the half, breaking from an Ely Scrum deep in the Walden back line, picking off the gaps, with the try line in sight, only a last minute tackle save Tigers going further behind,
Ely were able to apply some pressure on the Walden defence, but they stood firm, they briefly lost another man and it was during this time Ely crossed the try line, with Matt McCarthy diving over, after some good work from Adam Tallack, the conversion went wide of the posts, the next score was to prove all important, and it was Walden that added to the scoreboard, with the award of a penalty they opted to kick for the points from just inside the Ely half, with time running out the 3 points put the game out of the reach of Tigers and it was in fact the visitors that scored on the stroke of full time as Walden camped out in the Ely half as the home side were unable to clear their lines, Walden moved the ball out wide to go over, and add the conversion as the final whistle blew as Walden march towards the league title and promotion.
Press release from Ely Tigers Rugby Club
Photo Credit: Steve Wells
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