Ely Tigers roar to a gr-eight win over Thetford rivals to remain on heels of leaders

Ely Tigers roared their way to an emphatic 52-3 win over Thetford in their latest London Three Eastern Counties outing on Saturday.

The hosts ran in eight unanswered tries in the romp and are just three points behind leaders Holt in third place ahead of a trip to Wisbech.

The game was only minutes old when Charlie Coupland darted through the visiting defence and dotted down for the first try of the game, which was converted.

And Tigers crossed again soon after when Matt McCarthy dived over in the corner following a clever counter-attack.

A lack of discipline saw Ely concede a string of penalties, which kept their scoring rate in check for a time.

But they showed solid defence to keep Thetford at bay after they kicked for the corner several times.

The visitors eventually chose to kick for the posts to get themselves on the scoreboard, but Tigers rallied as man of the match Oscar Edwards moved the ball out wide and an impressive flick pass from fly-half Ryan Clark put Joel Scott Paul in at the corner.

Ely came flying out of the blocks in the second half, as Jacob Muncey ran in a brace of tries.

Nathan Brooks ripped the ball from an opponent to touch down himself, when Thetford attempted to run from their own five-metre line, and Thomas Jackson gave a splendid dummy to crash his way over for a converted score.

Jackson was involved again late on as he cut a straight line through the visiting defence and offloaded to McCarthy, who weaved his way to the line to complete the tally.