Ely Tigers 57 Brightlingsea 7 THE Tigers were back in league action after a weeks rest and within five minutes Ely had scored their first of 11 tries for the day. Pressure on the visitors try-line led to consistent infringements and a five-metre scrum,

Ely Tigers 57

Brightlingsea 7

THE Tigers were back in league action after a weeks rest and within five minutes Ely had scored their first of 11 tries for the day.

Pressure on the visitors' try-line led to consistent infringements and a five-metre scrum, which the Tigers scrum drove over the line for Michael McDougal to score his first try in an Ely shirt.

The Tigers second try came in quick succession when Tom Jackson scored in the corner. Brightlingsea were game opponents and continued to come back at the home side, but the Tigers defence was rock solid.

Another five-metre scrum and another impressive drive over the line saw Dan Pike score the try.

It wasn't long before Lee Kupyn got on the score sheet with the usual tenacious drive for the line. The visitors continued to come back and Ely gifted the opposition a soft try which they converted to reduce the Tigers' lead to 20-7.

Lee Kupyn picked up a loose ball deep in his own half and sprinted nearly the full length of the pitch to score his second.

The second half was very similar to the first. Centre Karim Faisali was held up over the try-line but the ensuing five-metre scrum saw another pushover try for number-eight Dan Pike. Ed Fahey kicked the conversion for a 37-7 lead.

Two more quick Tigers tries were to follow, firstly to hooker Alan Mason, and then to Ed Fahey. Kupyn picked up his hat-trick of tries after a break by Carl Ward and this was followed up by a try by Faisali after an initial break by Tim Mills.

Wisbech II 5 Ely Tigers II 26

THE week after their spectacular cup victory, Ely II travelled to Wisbech for a friendly match missing many of their regular players.

Ely worked their way to the Wisbech line where the Ely number-eight Chris Ball picked-up and drove over with Matt Daybell adding the conversion to give the Tigers a 7-0 lead.

Wisbech kicked off long from the restart but Matt Daybell broke, running 60 metres resulting in another Ely five-metre scrum from which, Andy Hugo sliced through the defence to score and the Tigers led 12-0.

A quarter of the match had gone when Wayne Marshall had to leave the field injured and Ely had to reorganise the scrum and play with 14 players for the rest of the game.

Half-time arrived without any more scores but the lack of a player seemed to spur the Tigers who went on immediate attack. A superb piece of interplay between forwards and backs without play being interrupted, resulted in about 20 passes and some lovely angled running which finally led to Iain Scott crossing the line. Daybell kicked the conversion from far out.

With 10 minutes to go, Mark Egerton made a clear break and ran 40 metres before taking out the last defender with a pass to Andy Hugo who scored his second try.

Daybell again added the conversion for a 26-0 lead before Ely relaxed, letting Wisbech in for a consolation try.