Ely Tigers travelled to Suffolk to face Southwold, and a strong brisk wind on the coast, for their last away game of 2023, again the side were forced to make changes to the starting 15.

At five minutes on the clock, the home side make the breakthrough, a missed tackle on the wing allowed them to cross the line for the first try of the afternoon, despite the wind behind them the conversion was missed.

From the try, Ely were camped in the home side's half, but were unable to find the try line. Finally a chance came for Ely from a penalty, in front of the posts, but the strong head wind held the ball up, bouncing off the crossbar allowing the home side to clear their lines.

A misplaced pass gave Southwold their second try of the afternoon, as Wold kicked the loose ball towards the try line before going doing on the ball over the try line, under the posts, the conversion was added.

With a brisk wind behind them, Wold opted to kick a penalty from half line, the kick had the distance but the ball drifted the wrong side of the posts.

As half time approached, Wold camped out on Ely try line, probing with a number of scrums, which after a time of probing Wold found the gap and went over for their third try of the afternoon. They were unable to add the conversion as they lead 17-0 at the break.

Second Half saw Ely in Wolds half, and finally get on the scoreboard as Matt McCarthy scored with a penalty.

A mistake from Ely from the restart saw a home try, deep in Ely half, Wold moved the ball right to the centre finishing with a cross field kick straight in to arms of the winger to score the bonus point try, again unable to added the conversion points.

A mistake from the home side saw Ely cross the try line, from a scrum, as Mitch  Kennett found a gap to dive over, a quickly taken conversion was missed.

Ely went down to 13 as two players were shown yellow cards. The home side were mastering the conditions better as they tried to ply further pressure on Ely, but it was Ely that added to the score as Luke Turner went over, to score.

The conversion was missed, as the final whistle blew and it was a 22-13 defeat.

Tigers sign off 2023 with a home game against West Norfolk (2pm) kick off this coming Saturday

 

 

 

 

 

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