RUGBY ROUND-UP Ely Tigers 29pts Southwold 0 SATURDAY S return match with Southwold saw a reverse of fortunes for Ely Tigers. From the kick-off it was apparent Ely were heading into the match with a positive attitude. Quick hands and plenty of awareness

RUGBY ROUND-UP

Ely Tigers 29pts

Southwold 0

SATURDAY'S return match with Southwold saw a reverse of fortunes for Ely Tigers.

From the kick-off it was apparent Ely were heading into the match with a positive attitude.

Quick hands and plenty of awareness saw an early break from Tom Jackson put Southwold on the back foot.

Five minutes later, a well-timed tackle saw possession fall to Mark Goude, who sprinted away to finish in the corner and give Ely an early 5-0 lead.

By now it was apparent that Ely had the upper hand in both forward dominance and quick, efficient hands in the backs.

Consistent pressure saw an excellent piece of individual skill from Lee Kupyn, who broke away from the pack to touch down under the posts. Ed Fahy kicked the conversion to bring the score to 12-0.

Strong defence by Ely held off an attacking onslaught from Southwold until half-time.

The second half began how the first had finished and it wasn't long before Ely won a scrum deep into the opposition half.

A well-rehearsed set move saw quick hands from Daniel Coulson and Gavin Ross to allow Goude to score his second try of the game.

Ely's pack dominated the scrums which allowed the backs plenty of possession. An outside break from Jackson was converted into good second-phase ball and moved to Iain Scott, who outpaced his opposite number to score in the corner, making the score 22-0. Jackson scored a try in the dying seconds, converted by Fahy.

Newmarket II 19pts

Ely Tigers II 50pts

A WEAKENED Ely travelled to Newmarket for their Greene King Premiere match.

Newmarket won the toss and gave Ely the wind and the slope for the first half.

Ely kicked off and Newmarket were greeted by a crunching tackle from Will Goosen, showing the Tigers' intentions. The Ely pack took the first two scrums against the head and scored as Andy Hugo broke and touched down.

Within two minutes of the restart, the Tigers' scrum won another against the head and the backs combined well to put Hugo in the corner and Ely led 12-0 with only five minutes gone.

At this point, Ely went to sleep, they failed to clear and lazy defensive work allowed Newmarket to drive over from five metres. Despite wind, slope, big territorial and possession advantage, Ely were inept for a long period of the first-half. Sadly for the spectators, Newmarket were no better.

Eventually, the Tigers moved the ball to the backs, who scored after powerful break and touch-down by Mark Egerton.

Immediately, Magnus Woodroffe intercepted a Newmarket pass and the ball was moved to Matt Daybell who sidestepped to score in the corner.

This on was repeated as Andy Hugo also intercepted and ran 60 metres for his hat-trick. The Tigers somehow went into half-time 31-5 up.

For the second-half, Ely used all four reserves but immediately lost prop Goosen and Dave Lloyd came back on. The Tigers' propensity to concede penalties led to a converted Newmarket try. Ely then lost full-back Gareth Mills and were reduced to 14 for a period.

Adversity concentrated the Tigers, however, and they produced constructive play for the first time in the match. This culminated in Matt Daybell making a superb break to score.

The Tigers continued playing very good rugby. After a long break by Andy Hugo, the ball was moved to Matt Daybell who saw Alan Mason unmarked and grubber-kicked across.

He hacked on and dived on the ball over the line to score.

Then another lovely jinking break by Matt Daybell made 40 metres before off-loading for the ever-present Will Watts to score.

The Tigers leading 50-12 were in full flow but lost scrum-half Vic Cato, again reducing them to 14 with a large reshuffle.

In the final minute, Newmarket scored for a final 50-17 scoreline.

Matt Daybell kicked five conversions and Watts was outstanding for the Tigers.

Ely Tigers III 29pts

Haverhill II 5pts

ELY III entertained Haverhill II at home with six substitutes, including five front row players.

Ely played into the wind in the first half and Ely's pack started to gain ball for their speedy backs to run.

When Haverhill got possession, they ran at the young Ely backs and found a solid wall of defence.

After 30 minutes, Ely disrupted the Haverhill scrum and three Ely players pounced on the ball, allowing skipper David Pople to score under the posts.

One of the Haverhill players was injured when the scrum wheeled, leaving the game in limbo for the air ambulance.

The game was restarted with Mark Slater's conversion and the referee blew for half-time.

Ely, now with the slight wind advantage of the wind, attacked and Tom Ashman's chased one of his own excellent tactical kicks to touch down in the corner.

This galvanised Haverhill and they eventually crossed the line to score. With Haverhill watching the fast Tigers backs, hooker Nigel Cross broke and passed to David Pople to score for a comfortable 19-5 lead.

Further defensive pressure from Ely resulted in a spilled ball for Dave Walker to scoop up and cross under the posts.

Jimmy Gilbourne kicked two conversions for the Tigers.

Sudbury Under-13s 22pts

Ely Tiger-13s 12pts

ELY Tigers played against a strong and well-drilled Sudbury side although several of their regular players were away.

Despite the unfamiliar line up and positional changes, Ely raced into an early lead with two excellent tries from Doug Stuart, the first converted by Joe Coyle.

Sudbury fought back well with two unconverted tries before half-time.

In the second-half, Ely were forced to defend for long periods some hard tackling kept the scores close.

Eventually, Sudbury's advantage of rotating seven substitutes began to tell and they were able to run in two tries in the last five minutes.