Tigers make it two wins from two

Ely Tigers sit top of the table after making it two wins on the spin, but they had to come from behind in the win over Ipswich YM in Suffolk, as the home side scored in the opening minutes under the posts. Tigers had a early chance to get some points on the board when they were awarded a penalty, opting to kick, but the kick from Joel Scott Paul was missed, however it wasn’t long before they drew level, a powerful break from Jacob Muncey saw the ball feed out to Matt McCarthy, who in turn passed the ball inside to Charlie Coupland to score under the posts, with Scott Paul adding the extra points

Tigers were forced into a early change when James Buckland was forced off due to injury, with Oscar Edwards coming on, and it was Edwards that was instrumental in the next Tigers try, chasing down a kick from the backs, he forced an error in from the home side and stole the ball, he then released Alfie Ramswell who raced from the pack to score, again the extra points were added to the scoreboard, another two awarded penalties for Tigers enabled further points to be added to the scoreboard.

With haft time approaching the home started to apply pressure and forcing Ely deep into their half, after a number of line out, the home side won the ball from a scrum, they forced the ball out wide to the left where they eventually found the gap to score in the corner, they failed to add the extra points from the angle, which saw the half time score finish 20-12 to Tigers    

Directly from the restart, Tigers added a further try, Nathan Brooks finding Edwards to cross the try line, in the corner, back come the home side, again finding space in the corner to score, to make it 17-25 to Ely.

Ely win the ball from another scrum and freed to ball left to right in a series of passes, Scott Paul was on hand to dart across the line to score, but against the wind he failed to add the extra points as the ball fell just short, from the restart the home side found themselves further behind, again a powerful break from Muncey allowed Chris McGarth to cross the white line, with the extra points added, the next break proved that the players also are handy for their feet as well as hands, a break again from Muncey, under pressure he nudged the ball forward, the bounce of the ball was kind enough for Brookes to add the slightest of touches into the path of McCarthy who crossed over to score, with Scott Paul adding the extra points, with time running out there was still time for another try, as again the home side crossed over in the corner, with another missed kick the final score finished 44 – 22 in favour of Ely.     

Match report and pictures Steve Wells