Rugby Ely Tigers 51 Mersea Island 7

Ely crushed lowly Mersea Island at Downham Road on Saturday to stretch their winning run into its third successive match.

An impressive haul of six tries for John Dibb’s side saw them pick up another bonus point win that moves them to within seven points of league leaders West Norfolk, albeit with only two games left to play this season.

As they have in recent weeks, the Tigers started the match strongly, forcing the visitors in to conceding multiple penalties. Within the first 15 minutes, Joel Scott Paul was able to bring the score to 9-0 with three converted kicks.

Soon after, Ely were closing in on the Mersea try line but a failed pass fell into the hands of the opposition. But Charlie Coupland was on hand to intercept after some sloppy play from Mersea and he touched down under the posts for a converted try.

The Tigers began to up the tempo and soon found themselves camped in the opposition five metre line. A strong scrum gave space for Dan Coulson to touch down in the corner for a converted try.

And, a few moments later, Mersea conceded a penalty and received a yellow card for hands in the ruck, allowing Ely to kick for the corner.

A well-worked forward maul, off the line-out, forced Ricky Neale over in the corner for a converted try.

Ely continued to run rampant in the second half. The Tigers countered a kick over, and an inside ball to Coupland gave him his second try of the day after sidestepping through the defence.

Mersea fought their way into Ely territory before losing the ball in the tackle. The Tigers countered and rapid passing forced the ball wide to man of the match, Scott Paul, who touched down under the posts.

Ely’s final try came from Lee Coulson who got on the end of Kieran Kennett’s excellent inside ball, which forced him through the Mersea defence for a converted try.

Mersea scored a consolation try in the dying minutes of the match.