RUGBY Ely Tigers 44 Dereham 0 ELY Tigers had high hopes of maintaining their unbeaten track record as they lined up to face Dereham in an Eastern Counties league match on Saturday (11). With both Mitzman and Jackson back in the squad, having recovered fr

RUGBY

Ely Tigers 44

Dereham 0

ELY Tigers had high hopes of maintaining their unbeaten track record as they lined up to face Dereham in an Eastern Counties league match on Saturday (11).

With both Mitzman and Jackson back in the squad, having recovered from injury, Ely looked likely to upset the visitors.

As the game kicked off Dereham looked as though they were going to put up some resistance with their big pack starting strong. But after 10 minutes Ely began to dominate the set piece and, with the backs on good form and with Rhys Hurst standing in at 10 for the first time, he fed the back line with good ball all day.

The game swung to Ely's favour and after a sustained period of pressure from the forwards Jamie Russell dived over the line from the back of a scrum to score the first try. He then added the conversion.

As the ball was kicked back to Ely the forwards worked their way up the pitch with Hayler and Day making good ground on every drive. The ball went wide and Jackson crashed through the two centres to score under the posts. Russell added the extras and Ely led 14 - 0.

This quick succession of scoring riled Dereham who instead of knuckling down took their frustration out on each other. This indiscipline allowed Russell to add a further six points with the boot, taking the score to 20 - 0.

In the second half the Tigers really began to turn the screw and Dereham were unable to defend the rampaging Ely side.

Kieren Kennett broke the line to score his first try for the squad after a great offload from Andy Hugo. The conversion was missed but Russell made up for it by great play from the back of the scrum with his sniping run resulting in another try for him.

Hurst's play at 10 was also rewarded with two tries which Russell converted, leaving the final score 44 - 0.

Skipper Mark Mitzman said afterwards: "Our aim is to improve as each week passes, and this we are doing consistently. Today's performance showed that Ely can and will expose the weak points in an opposition and use it to our advantage."

Ely go into Round Three of the EDF Junior Vase against Woodbridge this week at the Downham Road ground.