ELY Tigers came away with the points from a bruising encounter with rivals Haverhill on Saturday.

Haverhill 14

Ely Tigers 20

ELY Tigers came away with the points from a bruising encounter with rivals Haverhill on Saturday.

Some resilient play from Karl Hayler’s men ensured Haverhill were contained for large parts of the match, while the Tigers speedy attacking play helped guarantee the points at the other end.

The win cements Ely’s place in mid-table in Eastern Counties Division 1 with three wins and 13 points from their six games player so far.

Ely took the game to Haverhill from the outset and a tense opening period of play saw Ely edge tentatively into the lead courtesy of a Ben Forteath penalty.

As the pace of the game picked up, Ely started to build some promising attacks but sodden outfield conditions saw countless final passes go astray and scoring opportunities go begging.

Ely were able to muster one final attack in the minutes prior to the break however, and after a period of broken play Joel Scott-Paul was able to wriggle free of the Haverhill defence to score under the posts, putting Ely into a 10–0 lead.

Haverhill notched up a converted try to bring themselves back into the game early in the second half but the comeback was soon thwarted as some sinuous interplay between both backs and forwards combine put Dan Coulson on a fast stepping run towards the line with John Hunt on hand at the end to touch down the score, the conversion putting Ely back into a healthy 17–7 lead. Further pressure in this period saw Ben Forteath slot his second penalty to increase the lead.

As the match came to an end Haverhill stepped up the pressure to try and steal a share of the points but despite managing a penlty try, the home side were unable to make any further inroads into the Ely defensive line.

Ely Standard Man of the Match was Sean Kennett